CHAPTER

THE NEW RULES

I was intimidated.

I’d spent more than two decades in the FBI, including
fifteen years negotiating hostage situations from New York
to the Philippines and the Middle East, and I was on top of
my game. At any given time, there are ten thousand FBI
agents in the Bureau, but only one lead international
kidnapping negotiator. That was me.
But I’d never experienced a hostage situation so tense,
so personal.
“We’ve got your son, Voss. Give us one million dollars
or he dies.”
Pause. Blink. Mindfully urge the heart rate back to
normal.
Sure, I’d been in these types of situations before. Tons of
them. Money for lives. But not like this. Not with my son on
the line. Not $1 million. And not against people with fancy
degrees and a lifetime of negotiating expertise.
You see, the people across the table—my negotiating
counterparts—were Harvard Law School negotiating
professors.

I’d come up to Harvard to take a short executive negotiating