ISBN-13: 9780615749266 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 266 str.
Gary Hillmann is the G MANN. He is a federal government engineer working for the United States Transportation Department. The G MANN is a transplant from the Midwest relocated to the Southwest. The desert and the work suit him except for one glaring issue...the corrupt politics. Bryan Baker is Gary's right-hand man in the office and assigned to the most expensive transportation project in state history, a commuter train, the T'rrain Trekker, between Capitol City and Allentown. This seemingly harmless infrastructure project has a catch; it is the state governor's centerpiece in his run for the Presidency. Bryan and Gary, the feds, take the brunt of project level heat as they battle the governor's henchmen attempting expedite the construction. Under tacit orders from the governor to just get it done, construction moves forward. The feds are deliberative in their decision-making contrary to the governor's schedule. Patrick Ruiz is the project construction engineer from Laramie Engineering, the company hired to construct the train. He is teamed with an Allentown public planner, Casey Baxter. Casey is an ambitious young mother of two competing in the male dominated world of transportation. Casey and Patrick are the point-people on the ground managing the governor's dirty work. Gary and Bryan both deal with rocky relationships in their personal lives with their girlfriends. Bryan is injured in a bicycle crash and is reunited with his girlfriend. As difficult as their relationships are, work is even more trying. When a whistleblower comes forward with information regarding falsified concrete testing reports, things begin to unravel. An explosion at Gary's house sends him to the emergency room and a conclusion that it was an assassination attempt. Soon after, Bryan is traveling with the state whistleblower when they are run off a winding mountain road. The whistleblower is dead in the crash and Bryan is left recovering with a second broken leg. Casey Baxter reaches her breaking point and jumps to her death off the Rio Caballo Gorge Bridge. Losing her and Patrick's clandestine relationship is enough to push the man over the edge. In an Old West style showdown of good and evil, Patrick and Gary square off for all the marbles.