Allegiance
Tom Abrahams
Author Bio
Tom is a Texas television reporter and anchor who has spent more than 20 years covering local, national, and international news.
He’s interviewed Presidents, cabinet members, and leaders in congress. He’s reported live from the White House, Capitol Hill, and the United Nations.
Tom’s covered five national political conventions. He has flown with presidential candidates, gone backstage at their rallies, and broken stories about them on television and online.
He was at the Pentagon while smoke still rose in the hours after 9/11 and was in the room when Secretary Colin Powell made his case to the U.N. Security Council for war against Iraq.
His reporting has been recognized regionally and nationally for its depth and relevance, with awards from the Radio Television Digital News Directors Assocation, The National Headliner’s Foundation, The Associated Press, and The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in Texas and in Florida.
His novels are realistic and plausible, based in fact, while treading on the jagged edges of the fantastic.
His first novel, SEDITION, is also available from Post Hill Press. He is busy at work on ALLEGIANCE BURNED, the high-octane, globe-trotting sequel to ALLEGIANCE.
Tom lives in the Houston suburbs with his wife, Courtney, and their two children.
Description
Beer, Redheads, And Politics… Jackson Quick Should Have Known Better.
First, He Trusted A Texas Politician.
Then He Fell For A Leggy Woman.
Worst Of All, He Drank A Beer That Tasted Funny.
Now He’s Running For His Life, Trying To Piece Together How He Fell Into A Battle Over Something So Small It Takes A High-Powered Microscope To See It.
New York Times Bestselling Author, Graham Brown, writes, “Tom Abrahams’ writing is sharp like the crack of a rifle, clear like a trumpet’s call, never more so than on the pages of his novel Allegiance, where the stakes are as big as Texas ”
Bestselling Techno-thriller author Steven Konkoly argues, “Nothing is what it seems in this story, each situation and scenario shifting with a mercurial precision that will leave the reader stunned. The result is nothing short of a wickedly intelligent, breathtaking thriller. Sizzling storyline, snappy dialogue and fiercely intelligent twists are just a few of the elements that lift Allegiance out of the vast political thriller muck and establish Abrahams as one of my favorite authors.”
Rabid Readers Reviews contends the Allegiance series, “has the promise to develop into phenomenal spy fiction. Abrahams has the skill and talent of story development and self-editing that fans of the genre should take note. Tom Abrahams will soon be a “can’t miss this author” on your new release sheets. “Allegiance” was a wonderful read. If you like Robert Ludlum, Vince Flynn, Brian Haig or any of the great political thriller authors, Tom Abrahams is an author you need to discover today.
ALLEGIANCE sits at the crossroads of politics, nano science, energy policy, and the unapologetic quest for power and money.
A sniper team takes aim at a gubernatorial candidate. A political aide is kidnapped and interrogated about the encrypted iPods he’s carried around the globe. A research scientist on the verge of an earth-shaking breakthrough disappears from his secretly funded university lab. All three are connected in a battle over something microscopic. As the pieces of a Texas-sized conspiracy collide, will the unwitting hero at the center of it succeed in saving his life and the Republic? Or will those trying to silence him prove too powerful in a world where there is no allegiance.
Book excerpt
The last I remember, I was at a bar on Sixth Street.
It smelled like a Thursday; a mix of cloves, hairspray, spilled beer, and sweat. Thursdays are big in Austin; a jump on the weekends that lie ahead. My girlfriend, Charlie, left me sitting in a small red vinyl booth while she went to the bathroom.
Charlie always likes hitting the clubs on Thursdays. She says it makes getting through the week easier when she knows she has an extra night of dancing and drinking.
She’s as tall as I am; maybe 5’11”. She has red hair and bright green eyes, like Nicole Kidman after she got famous, but before she denied having plastic surgery.
She is Days of Thunder hot and whip smart. I’ve dated attractive women before, but I’ve never fallen for one until Charlie. I always run when things get too serious.
I had a busy Friday planned and hadn’t slept lately, but given how much I’d been traveling it was great to spend time with her.
The band 139 played on a small stage at the far end of the cramped pub. They were playing the song “Destruction.” The rhythmic strum of the bass guitar vibrated in my hand as I wrapped it around the glass mug on the table in front of me. I thumbed the condensation off of the glass and nodded to the beat.
Through the cigarette smoke hanging in the air there was the regular mix of college kids, politicos like Charlie and me, and Austin free spirits.
At the large black granite bar on the other side of the room, a group of gel-headed fraternity guys laughed and playfully punched the testosterone out of each other. They wore Polo shirts clinging tightly to their biceps.
Next to them were a couple of men in dark business suits, their bright silk ties loosened but still knotted beneath the collars of their pressed white cotton shirts. They worked at the Capitol. I didn’t recognize them, but their attitude and attire gave them away. They leaned against the granite, holding hi-ball glasses and whispering to each other about the women who passed by them. They ogled Charlie until she disappeared into the bathroom. Men were always looking at her. She pretended not to notice, but I knew she did.
Near the stage, in front of the band, about twenty people were bouncing to the music. They’d occasionally hold their glasses above their heads as they swayed back and forth. It seemed spontaneously choreographed; like a mosh pit without the slam-dancing.
I took a swig from the sweaty, vibrating glass of Shiner Bock. It was saltier than usual and bitter. I remember thinking the bartender didn’t know how to pour a beer as I wiped foam from my lips with the back of my arm.
139 finished its set. I think. I don’t remember much after swigging the beer.
Now I am seated and chained to the floor.
Where is this place?
There’s a man standing over me, insisting I reveal whatever it is I know. He voice is deep and full of gravel. He always sounds as though he needs to clear his throat. He’s British.
What does he want?
