Star Chamber Brotherhood Read Online Free PDF

tell you dates back to before the Events. Our family moved to Salt Lake from New York in 2006 and came to Boston in 2016, well before the insurgency.”
    “But I understand you returned to Utah and came back to Boston just a few years ago,” Mary Steen persisted. “Can you share your impressions of what’s changed out there? Carol said something about your having gone back to help rebuild. It sounds fascinating!”
    Werner smiled weakly. Mary Steen had no idea what she was asking. If he answered truthfully, she would never believe it. And if she did believe, it might traumatize her. So he gave her a short version of his standard cover story. To avoid tripping himself up with too many lies, he had long ago crafted a story that was as close to the truth as he dared get.  
    “I went back to Utah in 2022, during some very difficult times, as we all know. I spent a little more than two years there, at a remote site working on reconstruction and recycling of war-torn areas in the mountains. Then I was transferred to the Yukon for just over a year where I worked at a mining site before being recalled to Utah. When my commitment came to an end, I decided to come back East.”  
    He took a sip of champagne, surprised how easily the lies rolled off his tongue.  
    “Not a very exciting story, really. Utah is as physically beautiful as ever, I can happily report, and the people there are determined to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. I may even go back there one of these days.”
    Carol cast a concerned look in Werner’s direction. He sensed that Linda saw it and knew what was going on in Carol’s head. Frank’s possible return to Utah had become a sore spot between him and Carol. He had asked her more than once to consider moving back to Salt Lake City with him. A board-certified oncologist with her credentials could walk into any hospital in Utah and be offered a position on the spot with a generous housing allowance, no questions asked.  
    But for Carol, this was far too big a change. Though she had visited Salt Lake City for conventions, skied at Alta and Deer Valley, and visited the national parks at Bryce Canyon, Zion, and the Grand Canyon’s north rim, Utah was not a place where people like her could possibly settle down. Her job, her friends, her apartment, and her culture were all in Boston. That she had been born in Beirut, Lebanon, and did not come to the United States until she was seven years old was beside the point. She was a product of The Winsor School, Harvard, Tufts Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston. Having earned her rank in Boston, she could not conceive of giving it up.
    Werner’s arguments in favor of a move had failed to score points with Carol. For one, he loved Utah for its mountains, its wide-open spaces, its youthful population, its dry sunny climate, and the opportunity to be physically active despite his advancing age. And now that the Mormon-inspired laws restricting the sale of alcohol in the state were a relic of the past, he was confident that he could make a living in the wine and spirits business, whether as a bootlegger, bar owner, or perhaps in time as a licensed distributor.
    Werner also possessed a legal residence permit for Utah. In fact, his residence permit was not valid anywhere else but Utah. He had neither a travel permit nor a residence permit for Boston and would almost certainly never get one. He had come east only to search for his missing daughter, and had intended to return within a few weeks or months.  
    Sadly, however, the search for his daughter had taken far longer than he had expected. He had come across tantalizing hearsay from former classmates and friends that she had traveled or moved or emigrated, but he was not able to unearth a phone number or an address for her. He knew that the longer he stayed in Boston, the greater the risk of exposure and re-arrest. And unless he found her soon, he planned to leave the East and continue his search