He wonders why he stalls, what necessitates such preparation. Catch as catch can, he reminds himself. But he answers: because it’s smoking in a fireworks factory. It’s a life that centers around him like he’s the sun. It’s this unrelenting burden and responsibility that he resents and that he loves, that he welcomes and resists. Where does the temptation to turn around and return to the rental car come from? How can a gun fired not terrify him the way standing here does?
He climbs the steps and rings the doorbell.
• • •
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
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Published simultaneously in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pearson, Ridley.
Choke point / Ridley Pearson.
p. cm
ISBN 978-1-101-62115-8
1. Child slaves—Fiction. 2. Netherlands—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3566.E234C46 2013b 2013003706
813'.54—dc23
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ALSO BY RIDLEY PEARSON
The Risk Agent
In Harm’s Way
Killer Summer
Killer View
Killer Weekend
Cut and Run
The Art of Deception
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer
(writing as Joyce Reardon)
The Pied Piper
Beyond Recognition
Undercurrents
BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Peter and the Starcatchers series
(with Dave Barry)
The Kingdom Keepers series
Never Land series
(with Dave Barry)
Steel Trapp series
For a complete list of this author’s books click here or visit
www.penguin.com/pearsonchecklist
