THE DANGER GAME is the final book in THE QUINTANA ADVENTURES trilogy, featuring ex-Army Reconnaissance Photographer Steven Quintana and film actor Julia Travers. THE DANGER GAME is a new storytelling phone app, in which Julia and Steven play fictional versions of themselves trapped in a hostage situation. Viewers pay to submit plotlines in which Steven and Julia must âperform or die.â
With 100 million downloads and counting, fans love this interactive series. But the game is real: Steven and Julia really have been kidnapped. Their captors plan to kill them in the final episode and disappear with a billion dollars in profit.
Back in Los Angeles, friends Carl Webb and Trishelle Hobbes know the truth. But how can they outsmart this app, when they donât even know where Steven and Julia are? They enlist the help of the U.S. Armyâs best cyber operation specialists and create their own rival app, THE RESCUE GAME, dedicated to spoiling THE DANGER GAME and discovering Julia and Stevenâs location in time to save their lives.
The race is on.
THE DANGER GAME is third book in THE QUINTANA ADVENTURES trilogy after THE PICTURE KILLS and SIX PASSENGERS, FIVE PARACHUTES.
THE DANGER GAME is the final book in THE QUINTANA ADVENTURES trilogy, featuring ex-Army Reconnaissance Photographer Steven Quintana and film actor Julia Travers. THE DANGER GAME is a new storytelling phone app, in which Julia and Steven play fictional versions of themselves trapped in a hostage situation. Viewers pay to submit plotlines in which Steven and Julia must âperform or die.â
With 100 million downloads and counting, fans love this interactive series. But the game is real: Steven and Julia really have been kidnapped. Their captors plan to kill them in the final episode and disappear with a billion dollars in profit.
Back in Los Angeles, friends Carl Webb and Trishelle Hobbes know the truth. But how can they outsmart this app, when they donât even know where Steven and Julia are? They enlist the help of the U.S. Armyâs best cyber operation specialists and create their own rival app, THE RESCUE GAME, dedicated to spoiling THE DANGER GAME and discovering Julia and Stevenâs location in time to save their lives.
The race is on.
THE DANGER GAME is third book in THE QUINTANA ADVENTURES trilogy after THE PICTURE KILLS and SIX PASSENGERS, FIVE PARACHUTES.
Saturday, March 9, 10:00 a.m. (PST)
California
Itâs time to pull the trigger on Operation Bacon. Iâll sneak two pounds of fried Canadian pig inside Juliaâs trailer, and weâll enjoy the fatty flesh before her big press conference. Julia tries to be vegan, but she canât turn down the luscious pork from the land of her people. I love being a bad influence.
I walk through a maze of tables arranged on the grassy bluff. Chatty journalists sit in chairs, enjoying their catered breakfast while ignoring the majestic Pacific Ocean below. I sidle up to the chefâs station where Chef Rafa is whipping up omelets. He hands me two paper plates taped together. âThereâs a lot of pig in there, Esse, so it should stay warm.â
âI owe you, brother.â I slide out of line and weave back through the tables.
Itâs going to be a busy day. After breakfast, Julia and Trishelle will announce that their new company, A-OK Productions, will be producing its first movie, Under Withering Fire,about the Vietnam War, to be shot here in Malibu. Trishelle is Juliaâs best friend, manager, and producing partner, and she convinced Julia they should host the press conference onsite, which is, coincidentally, not far from our home. The weather, eleven days before spring, is perfect.Â
Iâll be the stunt coordinator. It will require focus, planning, and zero schmoozing, which is perfect, for now. This is not my careerâflipping cars for my movie star fiancĂ©e is not the long-term plan, but at least weâre together.
Carl Webb appears from nowhere and steps in front of me. âIâve seen that look before. Youâre on a mission.âÂ
âIâm sneaking bacon into Juliaâs trailer. Weâre going to chow down.âÂ
âHow about you and I joyride that Ferrari parked over there later? Thatâd be nice.â He points at the red stunt car that Juliaâs character will be driving in the movie.
âDonât get too excited. Itâs got a Ford Fiesta motor. Itâs just a prop I drove here for the press conference.â
âToo bad,â Carl says and leads the way through the last tables toward Juliaâs trailer.
Carl was the team leader of our Army Ranger reconnaissance team. He now runs Global Webb Securities. Weâve saved each otherâs lives enough times that we donât need to wear friendship bracelets to remember.
He also looks like a football Hall of Famer in his thousand-dollar suit, while Iâm in jeans and a T-shirt. At least I have a thick head of black hair. Heâs as bald as Mr. Clean.Â
A small blonde with a big voice blocks our path. âWait. Youâre those Rangers.â
âUsed to be,â Carl says. He tries to pass, but she puts her hand on his chest.
âGwen Thompson, CBC correspondent. Youâre Carl Webb, and youâre Steven Quintana. You rescued Julia once.â
âYup. In the Bahamas. Almost four years ago,â Carl says.
âAnd Julia rescued you from that crashing plane,â Gwen says, pointing at me.Â
A man eating at a nearby table, yells. âCelebrity Exposedsays that was all fake!âÂ
âNope. It all happened,â Carl says.
âThen prove youâre as amazing as they say you are,â Gwen says.
âHand me a piece of paper with something on it,â I say, accepting her challenge.
Trishelle appears behind us, holding a clipboard. âGwen, can I answer any questions?âÂ
âGive Steven Quintana whateverâs on your clipboard.â
Trishelle hands me a piece of paper. âItâs just the call sheet for todayâs event.âÂ
I look at the four quadrants of the page, moving my thumb to each corner, then hand the paper to Gwen. âQuiz me.â
She rolls her eyes and looks at the page. âNearest emergency room.â
âProvidence Saint Johnâs, 2121 Santa Monica Boulevard.â
âWho is the production assistant, and whatâs his call time?â
âSheâs a woman. Toni Fleischaker. Her call time was 5:45 a.m. at the crew parking lot at Gladstoneâs at the Beach, in the crew shuttle van at 6:00 a.m.â
Gwen seems impressed. âYou have a photographic memory.âÂ
Carl nods. âAnd thatâs only one of his superpowers.â
There is no such thing, but I donât admit that. I had an eidetic memory as a kid, but itâs fading with age. The Army taught me how to memorize something fast and keep it in my brain for a day or two.
âThank you for the show, gentlemen!â Trishelle shoos us away, but not before trading a wink with Carl. We leave her behind to smooth things over.
Carl and I dart past the last table and up the stairs into Juliaâs trailer. I put the warm plates on the Formica table, grab a red Sharpie, and draw a heart. Julia busted me hard for not giving her a Valentine last month, so maybe this will make up for it.
The bedroom door opens, and Julia emerges. We lock eyes and grin. Sheâs dressed as her character: low jeans, a tie-dyed shirt, and a headband around her wavy, blonde hair, like a war protestor from the 1970s. My knees knock like a swooning high school girl. We slam into each other and kiss.Â
âYou send me. Honest you do,â I whisper.
Carl motions like heâs gagging.
Julia sniffs the air. âDid you bring me bacon?â She rips the plates apart and pops a greasy piece in her mouth as her eyes roll back in her head.
She notices Carl. âHello, Mr. Webb! You look wonderful, as usual. Steven, what are you going to wear?â She looks at me like Iâm naked.Â
âWhat for? Iâm not making any speeches.â
âTo meet the minister and the wedding planner after the press conference. Theyâre making a special trip out here.â
Even with my memory training, I still forget the scary stuff, like marriage. She wants us to get hitched right after production, and then adopt a child by the end of the year. Parachuting into war zones with Carl was less daunting.
âWhat about you? You look like a hippie.â
Julia puts her hands on her hips. âI have a proper outfit steamed and ready.â
Carl grins, enjoying my discomfort. âLet me cut the tension.â He pulls an envelope out of his jacket pocket and thrusts it between us. âMajor Glenn Ward found the names of the man and woman who caused all your problems. Just tear it open.âÂ
Julia and I stare at the envelope like itâs radioactive. Major Glenn Ward works for Army Cyber Operations and consults for Carl on the side, with the Armyâs permission. Eighteen months ago, when I was trapped on a crashing plane, Glennâs expertise helped save my life. Now, after months of work, Carl and Glenn have tracked down the sick masterminds who created Six Passengers, Five Parachutes.
Neither Julia nor I reach for the envelope. It reeks of bad luck.Â
Carl flicks it up and down. âBoss Manâs real name is Douglas Bushnell.â
I saw Boss Man only once, standing next to his jet on an airfield in Mexico. That was right before he and Tina strapped me into a flying bomb alongside five killers and broadcast it on Pay-per-view. That was a bad day.
Carl stops flicking. âI understand if you donât want to open it. You two are on a winning streak. But, now that we know his name, we can catch him, no matter how rich he is. But only if you want.â
I donât touch it. Weâre still wounded. Escaping to a lake house in Canada and living off-grid for a year until our nightmares pass is the best solution. Not for Julia. She pushes through the pain instead. She produces a movie, plans a wedding, and preps for a family, all while paying a fortune to catch the bad guys who gave her the pain in the first place.
We stare at each other.Â
Julia exhales and grabs the envelope. I half-expect it to burn her, but it doesnât. She rips it open. I hope whatever is inside wonât spoil our lucky streak.
Danger Games is the third and final installment of the The Quintana Adventures. Since I hadn't read the first two books, I was hesitant to dive into the last one, but I found it wasn't necessarily vital to read the first two books to keep up with this one. The author kindly provided a note at the very beginning to help you catch up on the activities of the first two books. With that introduction, the reader is dunked into immediate action and adventure.Â
It starts off on a bang, and it doesn't end there. The author is skilled at presenting humor from the beginning, even if that wanes as the story progresses - for obvious reasons. The first person pov carries through as several characters get a chapter - Steven, Julia, Carl, and Tina. Having the back and forth perspectives helps move the story along and gives a 3D view of the characters, setting, and situation.Â
The author's adept at setting a fast-paced, action-packed adventure that kept pulsating through each page. As the reader, you didn't know what's going to happen next but the suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat. You want nothing more than for Steven and Julia to escape. As a reader, especially if you didn't know how these things worked, you're given to believe the author had excellent knowledge or the appearance of excellent knowledge concerning computers, programs, and coding. The story line was unique and different from other books I've read, and it held appeal with its wit, clever dynamics, and consistent characterization.Â
With all that said, and with acknowledgement that the description does state the characters are playing a game at the mercy of their kidnappers and are forced to "perform or die," I have to say I was a bit unprepared for the harsh elements of the plot and the inclusion of torture.
For me, the situations the kidnappers put the main characters in was hard to read through. There were other parts that didn't sit well with me, and I would support an "explicit" label in terms of the violence and language held within the storyline. It would also show why, although I'm not a fan of giving a 2-star rating, this story lands in the "it was okay/not for me" review category for me.Â