At Risk of Winning (The Max Masterson Series Book 1) Read Online Free

“return to sanity” by driving his lengthy entrance road at little more than an idle, searching for wildlife and shedding the effects of urban clutter that he felt whenever he drove to the Capitol. While a trip into the city gave him the feeling of being closed in, the approach to home had the opposite effect. By the time he pulled the Jag into its pampered space in the garage, he had decompressed enough to let out a sigh that only comfortable surroundings can induce.
    he walked through the private tunnel from the garage to the house and considered the news of the day. During his return from the confines of D.C., his ever-active mind had conjured a strategy for protecting Max from the ravages of society, and while it was hot in his mind, he was anxious to sit for ideas.
    The concept of sitting for ideas is not new to brilliant, productive people. It involves a process of withdrawing from distractions and entering the mind, where the journey begins. Inside the mind, the creative, ever-active state, once achieved, produces thoughts that flow continuously. Seemingly random ideas can frequently provide the solutions to problems, strategies for complex accomplishments, and new inventions. Depending on the creative bent of the traveler, sitting for ideas can lead the mind down one expected path or the other or shoot off into the realm of the unknown.
    The senator’s journey of sitting for ideas took place in a small room off of the study, where a small unadorned desk and a chair, upholstered with memory foam covered with a soft micro-fiber, faced a blank wall. On the desk, a pen and a legal pad were the only items necessary. he sat in the chair and focused his thoughts. Microprocessors in the chair detected his brain waves and projected his thoughts on the wall in front of the desk. he had to focus, and the first ten or fifteen minutes were spent getting rid of the “garbage” as he called the fragments of thoughts, memories that were irrelevant to the issues he chose to focus upon. Even childhood memories bubbled to the surface and were soon gone. When he focused, his mind eventually got to the items he was interested in dealing with.
    Max was his focus today. he had just left a think-tank meeting of the Patriot Group, a secret society of sorts, whose primary cause was the preservation and promotion of the American way of life. Their discussion that morning was the extent to which the right to privacy had been eroded by technology and security fears. The consensus of the group was that by the use of technology in society, individual rights had disappeared. Privacy, the right to be left alone, was gone. By accessing records indexed by social security numbers, street addresses, cell phones, and credit card statements, almost anything that had been recorded could be brought to one location. Anything that had ever been entered into a computer database or the internet was accessible in a microsecond, to be sorted and used for any purpose, and there were no secrets from the electronic grasp of government surveillance.
    his child was going to need protection from unwanted intrusion into his life. he resolved that he would never ask for nor allow Max to have a social security number or ID card. his medical needs would be met by a personal physician who made house calls and signed a strict confidentiality agreement. The doctor would be paid handsomely for providing exclusive medical care to the Masterson family, but it was necessary to maintain the privacy of their lives.
    No computer records were to be kept. Blood tests would be performed in-house, and the results anonymously maintained in the doctor’s excellent mind. No driver’s license, either, although he suspected that Max would rebel against this idea when he became old enough to drive. No purchases by credit in his name or Max’s. Those duties would be performed by a proxy shopper, who would purchase anything from razors to plane tickets. he planned all of it, his mind