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The First Three I, Q Books

Quest (Q) Munoz and Angela Tucker are new stepsiblings. Their parents are the two halves of the musical act, Match. After their parents marry at a ceremony in San Francisco, Q and Angela accompany them on their national tour. They travel the highways and byways of America in a multimillion-dollar coach.

As Q and Angela get to know each other, Q learns Angela’s mother was a highly decorated Secret Service agent. Malak Tucker died in the line of duty. She was trying to defuse a bomb set by a terrorist group at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It’s Angela’s dream to one day follow in her mother’s footsteps and become an agent.

Angela learns that Q lived for years on a sailboat with his mother. His father was another musician, the famous Speed Paulsen. His parents had a contentious divorce and Q and his mother have made their own way together for many years. Q likes and respects Roger, his new stepfather, and is happy for his mom, Blaze. Q has a casual attitude toward school and homework, and his first love is magic. He wants to be a magician someday and his cargo pants are full of decks of cards, colored scarves, and magic coins.

On their first night out of California, their coach breaks down in the Nevada desert. Q awakens and takes a stroll outside to find an extremely old, very wrinkly, and mysterious man slumbering by their coach in a sleeping bag. He has some camping equipment, a stack of James Bond novels, and perhaps the world’s oldest and smelliest dog, Croc, with him. He tells Q his name is Tyrone Boone. But everybody calls him Boone.

As it turns out, Boone is a roadie. A roadie is a jack-of-all-trades in the music business. Usually they work with a group or a performer and do everything from driving the bus and setting up all the equipment for each concert, to fixing broken instruments and generally anything else that needs doing. Boone has been in the music business for a very long time and Blaze Munoz-Tucker has worked with him before.

Q and Angela aren’t too sure about Boone. For one thing, he knows a lot about everything. He has incredibly detailed information about the history of every town they pass through. He has knowledge about things that most people wouldn’t know. And, as it turns out, Boone is not what he seems.

The bus is being followed. No one knows for certain by whom or why. But Boone seems to know who is following them. More importantly, he appears to know more about how to get rid of them than a roadie should.

When they arrive in Philadelphia, Angela receives the shock of her life. She learns that her mother, Malak Tucker, is not dead. Angela discovers that her mother had an identical twin sister, Anmar, when they were born in Lebanon. Separated from Malak at birth, Anmar grew up to become one of the most feared terrorists in the world, known as “Leopard.” Angela learns that years earlier Anmar contacted Malak (who was unaware of her existence), explaining she’d had a change of heart and no longer wished to be a terrorist. She told Malak she was on her way to Independence Hall to diffuse a bomb that had been planted there. Malak raced there to help her. But she arrived too late and Anmar was killed in the explosion.

Seeing an opportunity to infiltrate a deadly terrorist cell, Malak went undercover, impersonating Anmar. To do so, she gave up everything. Her husband, Roger, and her daughter, Angela, needed to believe she died in the blast. Malak made this sacrifice and has spent the past several years working her way up toward the top of the cell’s power structure.

Boone soon determines that a rogue Israeli Mossad agent, Eben Lavi, and a team of assassins are the ones tailing them. Eben holds Anmar (Malak) responsible for the death of his brother. He believes Angela has some information that may lead him to the Leopard.

In Philadelphia, Angela meets her mother in secret. She is overwhelmed at learning her mother is alive; Malak insists Angela and Q must keep her secret. They also discover that Boone is not just a roadie. He is an “NOC” CIA agent. NOC stand for No Official Cover. It means that Boone is working outside official CIA channels. If he is caught or captured, he will have no diplomatic immunity and the government will deny his very existence.

Boone and Malak decide the best way to stop the cell is for her to continue her ruse. Angela and Q are now privy to a deadly secret and when Eben Lavi takes them hostage, Boone must take extraordinary measures to keep them safe.

After Philadelphia, the next stop on the tour is a special concert at the White House. Q and Angela, along with their parents, stay overnight in the White House guest quarters. In the middle of the night they are summoned to the Oval Office by J. R. Culpepper, president of the United States. And they are shocked to find Boone sitting there, chatting with the president. The president praises them for their actions in Philadelphia and gives them a special gift—Omega Seamaster watches that have the president’s private phone number engraved on them. Each watch contains a tracking device so he can find them if they are ever in danger. The president tells them they may use the private number any time whenever they need his help and he will take whatever action he can to secure their safety.

As they delve further into uncovering the ghost cell, Q and Angela discover that there is a “mole” in the White House. And they meet P.K., the president’s precocious son, Willingham Culpepper. P.K. is ten years old but wise beyond his years. With his help, Q and Angela whittle down the list of suspects. But during the concert in the East Room, they are shocked to discover that the ghost cell has ordered Malak to kidnap P.K. and Bethany Culpepper, the president’s daughter. With Malak’s help, they foil the kidnapping of P.K. but Malak takes Bethany in order to preserve her cover. She promises President Culpepper she will allow no harm to come to Bethany and will blow her cover to save her if necessary.

In Kitty Hawk, Q, Angela, and Boone, with his team of operatives he calls the SOS team (Some Old Spooks), track Bethany and Malak as they head south from Washington, D.C. But things go sour when the cell makes a switch at a rest stop. Four identical Chevy Tahoes loaded with car bombs appear and they can’t be sure which vehicle holds Bethany and Malak. Now they are faced with a terrible decision: save Bethany and Malak or try to take out the car bombs.

In the middle of all of this, to Q’s great surprise and consternation, his biological father, Speed Paulsen, appears. He finds Q and inadvertently interferes with his efforts to help Boone foil the kidnappers. When Q and Angela are taken hostage by the cell, the game changes. On a remote island off the coast of North Carolina, Boone must enlist the help of ex-navy SEAL John Masters and a SEAL team to extract Bethany and keep Malak’s cover intact.

As the tension rises to nearly unbearable levels, Q and Angela make a startling discovery about Boone and Croc. They have an unusual ability to travel across great distances at incredible speeds. With this capability, they help stage an elaborate ruse to rescue Bethany and preserve Malak’s cover. Malak is now on the run with a wounded, high-ranking member of the ghost cell.

With the president’s daughter safe, and Q and Angela out of danger, what is their next move? What will happen as Malak climbs to the highest levels of the ghost cell? And does Boone have an agenda of his own?

All of these questions remain unanswered as they head for San Antonio with the SOS crew tracking the one remaining car bomb. And as they get underway, they are shocked to find a very unexpected stowaway hiding aboard the coach.