AN ABSENCE OF LIGHT
SYNOPSIS
“…Tisler may have been part of a group of rogue intelligence officers…”
The body of Arthur Tisler, an investigator in the Houston Police Department’s Intelligence Division, is found in his parked car with a bullet in his head. The death is both shocking and alarming for Marcus Graver, head of the Intelligence Division. If Tisler died by his own hand, it was tragic, but the case could quickly and quietly be closed. However, if his death was in any way related to Tisler’s secret investigations as an intelligence officer it could have potentially disastrous results for the entire police department. Unfortunately, new evidence quickly comes to light that suggests Tisler may have been part of a group of rogue intelligence officers deeply embedded inside the Division.
Realizing the explosive possibilities of this discovery, Graver knows he can’t investigate Tisler’s death solely from inside the Intelligence Division. There had to be another, impartial perspective from the outside. Secretly, he reaches out to an old friend, Arnette Kepner, an intelligence freelancer who had spent most of her career in the Far East for the CIA. Arnette agrees to help Graver and soon her independent surveillance team uncovers a source that leads to Panos Kalatis, a former legendary deep-cover agent for the Israeli Mossad who has also become a freelancer. But unlike Arnette, Kalatis is now on the shadow side of the law. He is deep into the darkness of international crime, and is now one of the world’s wealthiest — and most vicious — criminals.
When Arnette realizes who Graver is up against she tells him he is way out of his league. In fact, the entire Houston Police Department is out if its league. Even so, she agrees to continue working with him — outside official channels.
As Graver and his team dig deeper for answers, a dark cloud of uncertainty grows over the entire investigation and everyone begins to suspect everyone else. The truth seems ever more elusive and farther from their grasp as their complex investigation becomes a maze of mirrors and takes them into the very core of a vast criminal intelligence network. They plunge into the terrifying world of global high-tech crime, where brutal men of limitless power and riches operate like autonomous nations, trading billions of dollars worth of drugs and weapons in an arena without borders, without laws, and without fear.