The Burden

The Burden

By: DJ Lord

In the final days of the Soviet Union, three university students pull off the most daring heist in Cold War history-hijacking a military transport plane to steal millions in untraceable American dollars. But what begins as a calculated rebellion soon spirals into decades of exile, betrayal, and survival.

Now in Chicago, two of the last survivors, Mikael and Ilya, are living quiet, fractured lives, haunted by secrets and holding onto a fortune they can never safely spend. When a violent explosion shakes their neighborhood, the past resurfaces-and so do the people who never stopped hunting them.

Caught in the fallout are detectives Nardone and Sayers, whose own moral boundaries begin to crumble as they uncover the truth: the money is real, the danger is imminent, and the choices ahead could change everything.

Spanning from Leningrad to Istanbul, from forgotten airfields to cramped city flats, The Burden is a literary thriller about the weight of loyalty, the cost of freedom, and the thin line between justice and survival.