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"Behind the well-known U.S. security organizations&#8212; the FBI and CIA among them&#8212;lies a heavily guarded, anonymous government agency dedicated to intelligence surveillance and to a highly specialized brand of citizen protection. Shock waves of alarm ripple through the clandestine agency when Washington, D.C., police detective Ryan Kessler inexplicably becomes the target of Henry Loving, a seasoned, ruthless &#8220;lifter&#8221; hired to obtain information using whatever means necessary. While Loving is deft at torture, his expertise lies in getting an &#8220;edge&#8221; on his victim&#8212;leverage&#8212;usually by kidnapping or threatening family until the &#8220;primary&#8221; caves under pressure. The job of keeping the Kessler family alive falls to a man named Corte, a senior federal protection officer known as a &#8220;shepherd.&#8221; Uncompromising, relentlessly devoted to protecting those in his care and a passionate board game aficionado, he applies brilliant gaming strategy to his work. For Corte, the reappearance of Loving&#8212;the man who, six years earlier, had tortured and killed someone close to him&#8212;is also an opportunity to avenge his friend&#8217;s death. The assignment soon escalates into a fast-paced duel between Corte and Loving, a dangerous volley of wits and calculated risks. As he shepherds the Kesslers to a concealed safe house, Corte must anticipate Loving&#8217;s every step as the lifter moves in on his prey, and with the help of razor-sharp investigator Claire DuBois and his longtime ally, FBI agent Paul Fredericks, pinpoint which of Kessler&#8217;s seemingly insignificant cases has triggered Loving&#8217;s return. As the team digs deeper, each of the Kesslers comes under close scrutiny, and in captivity their family bonds are stretched to the breaking point&#8212;as the lifter draws near, Corte must ultimately choose between protecting his charges and exposing them to a killer in the name of long-awaited revenge."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://books.simonandschuster.ca/Edge/Jeffery-Deaver/9781439156360>