The Benefactors
Gold Factor
by
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Present Day - Capitol Building, Washington, DC [4:45pm]
Katherine Kiley Smithson stepped out of the closed-door Euro Summit meeting she was hosting, a pert female staffer close behind. She wanted rapid answers for the interruption. “This better be damned important,” she hissed. Secret Service Agents Paul Baker and Amelia Alvarez, the lead agents assigned to her security detail, moved in on her flanked by two additional agents she did not recognize.
Baker grasped her behind the elbow, “Madam Vice President, we need you to come with us right now.”
“What!” She pointed back to the conference room. “Do you have any idea what is going on in that room?”
Agent Baker ignored her and put a hand to his ear, “Palomino is in hand, and we’re on the move.” He began dictating instructions to his team through a secure radio, and angled Smithson down the hall.
Agent Alvarez sidled up and took her other arm. “Something has happened to the President. We’ll explain in the car.”
Smithson’s heart sank. She wrenched one arm free and aimed back at her staffer with one taupe-colored fingernail. “Julie, get someone from the State Department in that room A.S.A.P. I don’t want those bozos coming to any grand conclusions by themselves. You got that?”
The staffer nodded and turned down the hall, her phone already to her ear.
The Vice President allowed the agents to pull her through a maze of hallways at a brisk pace. At the door leading to the underground parking garage, one agent drew his weapon. Putting a hand to his earpiece, “Clear!” he shouted and burst through the door ahead of them. A black Chevrolet Suburban screeched and met them a few feet from the door. The passenger door swung open and an agent extended a hand to pull the Vice President in to the vehicle.
“What is going on?” Smithson demanded of Baker. His expressionless face disappeared as she was heaved into the back seat.
Inside, CNN warbled away on an overhead monitor. What she saw put her guts on a corkscrew roller coaster.
No, not like this…
Smithson watched the screen in private panic, feeling as if she had taken a naïve step into a deep swamp and was sinking into its murky depths.
I’m not ready for this...
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About the Book
Present day:
Sterling Morris reaches across the aisle to select Kaki Smithson as his Presidential running mate, uniting a polarized nation. But when an assassin’s bullet leaves the new President critically wounded in New Orleans’ Charity Hospital, tenacious journalist Ronnie Tamlin set her sights on a conspiracy and gives it a name: The BENEFACTORS - an organization that may have orchestrated Kaki’s rise to power and Sterling’s fall – and the consequences may prove fatal.
Flashback to 1945:
WWII is coming to a close. The Nazis and the Japanese have looted their empires and are secreting vast treasure. Leading the ranks of the OSS, three brazen agents, Herbert Mannington, Anthony Laperose, and Charles Constantine aid the U.S. to victory and in doing so, commandeer unimaginable wealth. As the world rebuilds, these well-intentioned renegades remain determined to establish a new world order while the pull of unfettered power begins to erode their sense of direction.
The Gold Factor, the first in the series and based on real events, is a twisting tale of intrigue that follows the rise of The BENEFACTORS, the legacy of a man who would see them stopped dead in their tracks, and the lives of four women entangled in a plot to assassinate a modern-day President.
About the Author
About the authors
Wesley Miller is the author of Pigeons, Penguins & Post Turtles. He lives with his wife of 24+ years, his 4 daughters, is a U.S. Navy veteran and successful health industry IT executive.
Jeff Callan is a writer, IT professional, and self-described conspiracy theorist. A native of New England, he now lives in Gilbert, Arizona with his loving wife, three beautiful children, and crew of suspicious-looking pets.