Hell's Corner

Book 0: Camel Club Series

by David Baldacci

Genres: International Crime & Mystery; Spy Thrillers; Terrorism & Assassination Thrillers

Synopsis

Oliver Stone and the Camel Club return in #1 bestselling author David Baldacci's most stunning adventure yet.

An attack on the heart of power . . .
In sight of the White House . . .
At a place known as . . .

HELL'S CORNER

John Carr, aka Oliver Stone-once the most skilled assassin his country ever had-stands in Lafayette Park in front of the White House, perhaps for the last time. The president has personally requested that Stone serve his country again on a high-risk, covert mission. Though he's fought for decades to leave his past career behind, Stone has no choice but to say yes.

Then Stone's mission changes drastically before it even begins. It's the night of a state dinner honoring the British prime minister. As he watches the prime minister's motorcade leave the White House that evening, a bomb is detonated in Lafayette Park, an apparent terrorist attack against both leaders. It's in the chaotic aftermath that Stone takes on a new, more urgent assignment: find those responsible for the bombing.

British MI-6 agent Mary Chapman becomes Stone's partner in the search for the unknown attackers. But their opponents are elusive, capable, and increasingly lethal; worst of all, it seems that the park bombing may just have been the opening salvo in their plan. With nowhere else to turn, Stone enlists the help of the only people he knows he can trust: the Camel Club. Yet that may be a big mistake.

In the shadowy worlds of politics and intelligence, there is no one you can really trust. Nothing is really what it seems to be. And Hell's Corner truly lives up to its name. This may be Oliver Stone's and the Camel Club's last stand.

Release date: November 9, 2010

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Print pages: 448

Sample

OLIVER STONE WAS COUNTING SECONDS, an exercise that had always calmed him. And he needed to be calm. He was meeting with someone tonight. Someone very important.
And Stone didn’t quite know how it was going to go. He did know one thing for certain. He was not going to run. He was through
running.


Stone had just returned from Divine, Virginia, where Abby Riker, a woman he’d met, lived. Abby had been the first woman Stone
had feelings for since he’d lost his wife three decades prior. Despite their obvious fondness for one another, Abby would
not leave Divine, and Stone could not live there. For better or worse, much of him belonged to this town, even with all the
pain it had caused.


That pain might become even more intense. The communication he’d received an hour after returning home had been explicit.
They would come for him at midnight. No debate was allowed, no negotiation suffered through, no chance of any compromise.
The party on the other end of the equation always dictated the terms.


A few moments later he stopped counting. Car tires had bitten into the gravel that lined the entrance to Mt. Zion Cemetery.
It was a historical if humble burial site for African Americans who’d gained prominence by fighting for things their white
counterparts had always taken for granted, like where to eat, sleep, ride in a bus or use the bathroom. The irony had never
been lost on Stone that Mt. Zion rested high above fancy Georgetown. It was not all that long ago that the wealthy folks here
only tolerated their darker brethren if they wore a maid’s starched uniform or else were handing out drinks and finger foods
and keeping their obedient gaze on the polished floors.


Car doors opened and car doors closed. Stone counted three clunks of metal against metal. So a trio. Of men. They wouldn’t
send a woman for this, he didn’t think, though that might simply have been the prejudice of his generation.


Glocks or Sigs or perhaps customized models, depending on whom they’d sent to do the deed. Regardless, the weapons would be
chambering efficiently lethal ordnance. The guns would be holstered under nice suit jackets. No black-clad storm troopers
rappelling from the skids of go-fast choppers in quaint, well-connected Georgetown. The extraction would be quiet, no important
person’s sleep interrupted.


They knocked.

Polite.

He answered.

To show respect.

These people had no personal grudge against him. They might not even know who he was. It was a job. He’d done it, though he’d
never knocked beforehand. Surprise and then the millisecond-long pull of a trigger had been his MO.


A job.

At least I thought that, because I didn’t have the courage to face the truth.

As a soldier, Stone had never had any qualms about ending the life of anyone who was trying to terminate his. War was Darwinism
at its most efficient and the rules were innately commonsensical, kill or be killed chief among them. However, what he had
done after leaving the military had been different in a way that left him permanently mistrustful of those in power.


He stood in the doorway, framed by the light behind him. He would have chosen this moment to fire, if he’d been on the trigger
side. Quick, clean, no chance of missing. He’d given them their opportunity.


They didn’t take it. They were not going to kill him.

It was actually four men, and Stone felt slight apprehension that his observations had been flawed.


The leader of the pack was trim, five-ten, short hair and efficient eyes that took in everything and gave nothing in return.
He motioned to the vehicle parked by the gate, a black Escalade. There was a time when Stone would have rated a platoon of
crackerjack killers coming for him by land, sea and air. Those days, apparently, were over. A quartet of suits in a Cadillac
on steroids was enough.


There were no unnecessary words uttered. He was expertly searched and ushered into the vehicle. He sat in the middle bench seat, a man on either side of him. He could feel each of their muscled arms as it lay against his. They
were tensed, ready to block any attempt by Stone to get to their weapons. Stone had no thought of making such an attempt.
Now, outnumbered four to one, he would lose that battle ten times out of ten, a blackened tattoo painted on his forehead,
a third eye his reward for the fatal miscalculation. Decades ago it was probable that four men far better than these would
lie dead as he walked away to fight another day. But those days were long in the past.


“Where?” he asked. He never expected a response and didn’t get one.

Minutes later he stood alone outside a building virtually every American would recognize. He didn’t stand there for long.
More men appeared, better and higher-ranked than the ones who had just dropped him off. He was now in the inner ring. The
personnel became more skilled the closer one approached the center. They escorted him down a corridor with numerous doorways.
Every single one of them was closed, and it wasn’t simply the lateness of the hour. This place never really slept.


The door opened and the door closed. Stone was alone once more, but again not for long. A door opened in another part of the
room and the man entered. He didn’t look at Stone, but motioned for him to sit.


Stone sat.

The man settled down behind his desk.

Stone was an unofficial visitor here. Normally a log was kept of everyone passing through this place, but not tonight. Not
him. The man was dressed casually, chinos, open-collared shirt, loafers. He slid glasses over his face, rustled some papers on his desk. A single light burned next to him. Stone studied him. The man looked intense and determined.
He had to be to survive this place. To manage his way through the world’s most impossible job.


He put down the papers; slid up the glasses onto the lined forehead.

“We have a problem,” said James Brennan, the president of the United States. “And we need your help.”



STONE WAS MILDLY SURPRISED but didn’t show it. Registering surprise was never good in situations like this. “A problem with what?”


“The Russians.”

“All right.” Nothing new there, thought Stone. We often have problems with the Russians.

The president continued, “You’ve been there.” It wasn’t a question.

“Many times.”

“You speak the language.” Again, not a question, so Stone remained silent. “You know their tactics.”

“I used to know them. That was a long time ago.”

Brennan smiled grimly. “Just like hairdos and clothes, if one hangs around long enough, things come back in style, including,
apparently, espionage techniques.”


The president leaned back and put his feet up on the Resolute desk that had been a gift from Queen Victoria to America near the end of the nineteenth century. Ruther-ford B. Hayes had been the first sitting president to use it, and Brennan the latest.


“The Russians have a web of spy rings entrenched in this country. The FBI has arrested some of them, infiltrated others, but
more are out there of which we have no information.”


“Countries spy on each other all the time,” said Stone. “I would be stunned if we didn’t have intelligence operations going
on over there.”


“That’s beside the point.”

“All right,” said Stone, who actually thought that was the point.


“The Russian cartels control all the major drug distribution pipelines in the eastern hemisphere. The monies involved are
truly enormous.”


Stone nodded. This he knew.

“Well, now they control it in the western hemisphere as well.”

This Stone didn’t know. “I understand the Colombians had been muscled out by the Mexicans.”

Brennan nodded thoughtfully. Stone could sense in the man’s weary expression the mounds of briefing books he had no doubt
pored over today to understand this and a dozen other critical matters thoroughly. The presidency would suck up every ounce
of energy and intellectual curiosity one cared to give the job.


Brennan said, “Pipeline trumps product, they finally figured that out. You can make the crap anywhere, but getting it to the
buyer is the real key. And on this side of the world Americans are the buyers. But the Russians have kicked our southern neighbor’s ass, Stone. They have killed and clawed and bombed and
tortured and bribed their way to the top, with the result that they are now in control of at least ninety percent of the business. And
that is a major problem.”


“I understood that Carlos Montoya—”

The president brushed this comment aside impatiently. “The papers say that. Fox and CNN broadcast that, the pundits fixate
on it, but the fact is Carlos Montoya is done. He was the worst of the scum in Mexico. He killed two of his own brothers to
win control of the family business, and yet he proved no match for the Russians. In fact, our intel leads us to believe that
he’s been killed. The Russians are about as ruthless as they come in the drug world.”


“All right,” said Stone evenly.

“So long as the Mexican cartels were the adversary it was manageable. Not ideal, of course, but it didn’t reach national security
status. We could battle it on our borders and in the metro areas where the cartels had infiltrated primarily through gang
ranks. It’s different with the Russians.”


“Meaning a connection between the spy rings and the cartels?”

Brennan eyed Stone, perhaps surprised he’d made the connection so fast. “We believe there is. In fact, our belief is that
the Russian government and their drug cartels are one and the same.”


“That’s a very troublesome conclusion,” said Stone.

“And the correct one, we think. Illegal drug sales are one of the leading exports from Russia. They make it in the old Soviet
labs, and ship it all over the world through various means. They pay off the people they have to and kill the ones they can’t
bribe. The monies involved are enormous. Hundreds of billions of dollars. Too enormous for the government not to want its share. And there’s more to the
equation.”


“You mean the more drugs they sell to America the weaker we become as a nation? It drains dollars and brain cells. It increases
the level of both petty and major crime, taxes our resources, shifts assets from productive areas to nonproductive ones.”


Again, Brennan looked surprised at Stone’s nimble articulation. “That’s right. And the Russians know something about the power
of addictions. Their populace certainly abuses both drugs and alcohol. But we have detected a purposeful, enhanced effort
by the Russians to basically overwhelm America with drugs.” The president sat back. “And then there’s the obvious complicating
factor.”


“They’re a nuclear power,” replied Stone. “They have as many warheads as we do, in fact.”

The president nodded. “They want back in the top tier. Perhaps they want to be the sole superpower, supplanting us. And on
top of that they are vastly influential in the Middle and Far East. Even the Chinese and Israelis fear them, if only for their
unpredictability. The balance is getting out of whack.”


“All right. Why me?”

“The Russians have gone back to old-school tactics, Stone. From your era.”

“I’m not that old. Aren’t there spies from my era still at the Agency?”

“No, there’s really not. There was a hiring freeze before 9/11 and a lot of voluntary and involuntary retirements of older
personnel. After those planes hit the buildings, there was considerable ramp-up. The result is that three-quarters of the CIA is comprised of twenty-somethings.
The only thing they know about Russia is they make good vodka and it’s cold there. You know Russia. You understand the trenches
of espionage better than most of the people sitting in the executive offices at Langley.” He paused. “And we all know you
have special skills. Skills this country spent good money instilling in you.”


The guilt factor. Interesting.

“But all my contacts there are gone. Dead.”

“That is actually an advantage. You go in with a blank slate, an unknown quantity.”

“How will we start?”

“By you going back in unofficially, of course. There will be training, getting you up to date on things. I suspect you will
be ready to leave the country in a month.”


“Going to Russia?”

“No, Mexico and Latin America. We need you on the ground where the drugs are coming through. It’ll be rough work. And dangerous.
I guess I don’t need to tell you that.” He paused and his gaze flicked to Stone’s close-cropped white hair.


Stone easily interpreted the observation. “I’m not as young as I was, obviously.”

“None of us are.”

Stone nodded, his mind racing ahead to the logical conclusion of all this. He really only had one question. “Why?”

“I already told you why. In many respects you’re the best we have. And the problem is very real and getting worse.”

“Can I hear the rest of it?”


“The rest of what?”

“Why I’m really here.”

“I don’t understand,” the president said irritably. “I thought I had made myself clear.”

“The last time I was here I told you some things and intimated other things.”

The president made no reaction to these words.

“Then I was offered the Medal of Honor.”

“And you turned it down,” Brennan said sharply. “A first, I believe.”

“You have to turn down what you don’t deserve.”

“Bullshit. Your actions on the battlefield more than earned it.”

“On the battlefield, yes. But in the greater scheme of things, I didn’t deserve it. And with an honor like that, all things have to be considered. Which I think is why I’m really here.”


The two men stared at each other across the width of the Resolute desk. By the look on his face the president very clearly understood what “all things” meant. A man named Carter Gray. And
a man named Roger Simpson. Both prominent Americans. Both friends of this president. And both dead. Directly because of Oliver
Stone, who’d had good reason to do it, but he’d still killed them. And there was really no legal or even moral excuse for
that. Even as he’d pulled the trigger on each man, Stone had known that.


But it still didn’t stop me, because if anyone deserved killing those two did.

“You saved my life,” Brennan began in an uneasy tone.

“And I took two others.”


The president abruptly rose and walked over to the window. Stone watched him closely. He’d said it. Now he was just going
to let the other man talk and let the chips fall.


“Gray was going to kill me.”

“Yes, he was.”

“So your killing him didn’t bother me as much as it ordinarily would have, to put it bluntly.”

“But Simpson?”

The president turned to look at him. “I did some research on that. I can understand why you would have wanted to eliminate
the man. But no man is an island, Stone. And cold-blooded killing is unacceptable in a civilized world.”


“Unless it’s been authorized by appropriate parties,” Stone pointed out. “By people who have sat in the chair in which you
now sit.”


Brennan snatched a glance at his desk chair and then looked away. “This is a dangerous mission, Stone. You will be given every
asset you require to succeed. But there are no guarantees.”


“There are never any guarantees.”

The president sat back down, made a steeple with his hands, possibly an impromptu shield between himself and the other man.

When Brennan didn’t say anything, Stone did. “This is my penance, isn’t it?”

The president lowered his hands.

“This is my penance,” Stone said again. “In lieu of a trial that no one wants because too many unpleasant truths will come
out for the government, and the reputations of certain dead public servants will be tarnished. And you’re not the sort to order my execution because, as you said, that’s
not how a civilized people resolve their differences.”


“You don’t mince words,” Brennan said quietly.

“Are they true words or not?”

“I think you understand my dilemma.”

“Don’t apologize for having a conscience, sir. I’ve served other men who held your office who had none at all.”

“If you fail, you fail. The Russians are as ruthless as they come. You know that better than most.”

“And if I succeed?”

“Then you will never have to worry about your government knocking on your door again.” He leaned forward. “Do you accept?”

Stone nodded and rose. “I accept.” He paused at the door. “If I don’t make it back, I would appreciate it if my friends were
told that I died serving my country.”


The president nodded.

“Thank you,” said Oliver Stone.



THE NEXT NIGHT STONE STOOD where he had for decades, in seven-acre Lafayette Park across from the White House. It had originally been called President’s
Park, but now that title encompassed the White House grounds, Lafayette Park and the Ellipse, a fifty-two-acre parcel of land
on the south side of the White House. Once part of the White House grounds proper, Lafayette Park had been separated from
that august property when President Thomas Jefferson had Pennsylvania Avenue plowed through.


The park had been used for many purposes over two centuries, including as a graveyard, a slave market and even a racetrack.
And it was also notable for having more squirrels per square inch than any other place on earth. To this day, no one knew
why. The place had changed dramatically since Stone first planted his sign in the ground, the one that read I Want the Truth. Gone were the permanent protestors like Stone, their ragged tents and their boisterous banners. Majestic Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was closed to vehicular traffic and had been ever since the Oklahoma City bombing.


People, institutions and countries were scared, and Stone couldn’t blame them. If Franklin Roosevelt had been alive and occupying
the White House once more he might have invoked his most famous line: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But
even those words might not have been enough. The bogeymen appeared to be winning the war of perception in the hearts and minds
of the citizenry.


Stone glanced to the center of the park, at the equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans
and America’s seventh chief executive. Jackson sat on a pediment of majestic Tennessee marble. It was the first statue of
a man on horseback ever cast in the United States. The monument was surrounded by a low wrought-iron fence, with a scattering
of ancient cannons inside this space. Four other statues memorializing foreign Revolutionary War heroes anchored each corner
of the green space.


North of Jackson were rows of colorful flowers and a large newly placed maple. Yellow tape was wound around flex poles set
in the ground ten feet out from this tree because of the open hole several feet deep and three feet wider than the huge root
ball. Next to the hole were blue tarps with the displaced dirt piled up on them.


Stone’s gaze rose to elevated points where he knew the countersnipers were stationed, although he couldn’t see them. He assumed
that many of them were probably drawing practice beads on his head.


No trigger slips please, gentlemen. I like my brain right where it is.

The state dinner at the White House was winding down and well-fed VIPs trickled out of the “People’s House.” One such guest
was the British prime minister. His waiting motorcade would carry him on the brief trip to Blair House, the residence for
visiting dignitaries, which was located on the west side of the park. It was a short walk, yet Stone supposed government leaders
could not safely walk anywhere anymore. The world had long since changed for them too.


Stone turned his head and saw a woman sitting on a bench near the oval-shaped fountain on the east side of the park midway
between Jackson and the statue of Polish general Tadeusz Kościuszko, who’d helped the fledgling English colonies free themselves
from British rule. The irony that the leader of that same monarchy was now staying at a place overlooking this monument was
not lost on Stone.


The woman was dressed in black slacks and a thin white coat. She had a large bag next to her. She appeared to be dozing.

That’s odd, thought Stone. People did not doze in Lafayette at this time of night.


She wasn’t the only person in the park. As Stone looked toward the trees on the northwest side of the park he spied a man
in a suit carrying a briefcase. His back was to Stone. He’d stopped to examine the statue of German army officer Friedrich
Wilhelm von Steuben, who’d also helped the colonists kick Mad King George’s royal behind more than two centuries ago.


And then Stone noticed a short man with a large belly entering the park from the northern end where St. John’s Church was located. He was in jogging attire, though he looked incapable
of even walking quickly without collapsing from a coronary. What looked to be an iPod was strapped to a belt around his ample
middle, and he had on earphones.


And there was a fourth inhabitant of the park. He looked like a street gang foot soldier, dressed in prison shuffle jeans,
dark bandanna, muscle shirt, camouflage jacket and stomp boots. The ganger was walking slowly right through the middle of
the park. This too was odd since gangers almost never came to Lafayette Park because of the heavy police presence. And that
presence was strengthened and even more vigilant tonight for a very simple reason.


State dinners put everyone on edge. A spring in the step of a patrolling sentry. A lawman’s hand a smidge closer to the trigger.
A heightened tendency to shoot and pick up the pieces later. If a leader went down, no one escaped responsibility. Heads and
pensions rolled.


But Stone had not come here to think about those things. He had come here to see Lafayette Park for the last time. In two
days he would be leaving for his month-long training session. And then it was off to Mexico. He had already made up his mind.
He would not tell his friends, the members of the Camel Club. If he did they might sense the truth, and nothing good could
possibly come out of that. He deserved to be sacrificed. They didn’t.


He drew one more long breath and looked around. He smiled as he saw the gingko tree near the Jackson statue. It was across
from the maple that had just been installed. The first time he’d come to this park it had been fall and the gingko leaves were a gloriously bright yellow.
It was magnificent. There were gingko trees all over the city, but this was the only one in the park. Gingkoes could live
well over a thousand years. Stone wondered what this place would look like in ten centuries. Would the gingko still be here?
Would the big white building across the street?


He was turning to leave this place for the final time when his attention focused on what was coming down the street right
toward him.


And his beloved park.



IT WAS THE SOUND of muscular engines, flashing lights and sirens that had put Stone on alert. He watched as the prime minister’s motorcade
pulled out from the west side of the White House and set off toward Blair House. The building, which was actually three town
houses stitched together, was deceptively large. It had more square footage than even the White House and was located to the
immediate west of the park and facing Pennsylvania Avenue across from the monstrously large Old Executive Office Building
where parts of the president’s and vice-president’s staffs maintained offices. Stone was surprised the Secret Service hadn’t
cleared the area before the motorcade left.


He glanced around again. The lady was now awake and talking on her cell phone. The man in the suit was still lingering around
the von Steuben statue with his back to Stone. The jogger was nearing the statue of Jackson. The ganger was still stamping
through Lafayette, although the park wasn’t that large. He should have managed it by now.


Something was clearly off.


Stone chose to head west first. Though he was no longer a protestor here, he had come to view Lafayette Park as his turf to
defend against all threats. Even his imminent departure to Mexico had not changed that. And while he didn’t yet feel threatened,
he had a sense that that status might abruptly change.


He eyed the jogger diagonally across from him on the other side of the park. The man had stopped and was fiddling with the
controls on his iPod. Stone’s gaze flicked to the lady on the bench. She was just putting away her cell phone.


Stone next approached the statue of the French general Comte de Rochambeau at the southwest corner of the park. As he did
so, at the adjacent intersection of Jackson Place and Pennsylvania Avenue security teams were arrayed into walls of Kevlar
and submachine guns awaiting the arrival of the prime minister. As he continued on, Stone met the ganger face-to-face. The
man seemed to be walking in quicksand, moving but not getting anywhere. And there was a gun under his jacket; Stone could
see the awkward but familiar bump in the material even in the darkened conditions. That was ballsy, thought Stone. You didn’t
come down here armed, unless you wanted a rooftop countersniper to assume the worst, with the result that your next of kin
might receive an official apology after your funeral. So why would the man risk his life?


Stone gauged the potential shot trajectory from the ganger to where the prime minister would be entering Blair House. There
was none, unless the ganger had a weapon that could defy the laws of physics by bending its bullets around corners.


Stone let his gaze drift to the man in the suit at the northwest corner of the park. The fellow was still examining the statue,
an act that normally would take at most a minute or so. And why come here at this hour to do so anyway? Stone eyed the soft-sided
briefcase the man carried. Because of the distance between them Stone could not see it clearly, but it appeared bulky enough
to contain a small bomb. However, the distance between the bomber and the prime minister essentially doomed any assassination
attempt.


The motorcade continued down West Executive Avenue toward Pennsylvania. Sirens and guards galore for what amounted to a half-block-long
slow jog on armored wheels. They would hang a left on Pennsylvania and pull in front of the curb next to the famous long green
awning that capped the main entrance to Blair House.


Stone spotted movement to the right of him from across the park. The jogger was on the go once more. Stone couldn’t be sure,
but he thought the fat man was looking in the direction of the suit.


Stone’s attention next shifted to the woman. She had risen too, slipped the bag over her shoulder and set off to the north
side of the park toward St. John’s Church. She was tall, Stone noted, and her clothes hung well on her long frame. He gauged
her age at closer to thirty than forty, though he’d never gotten a clear look at her face because of the poor light, the distance
and the many trees in between them.


His gaze swiveled again. On the other side of the park the suit was finally moving, heading northwest toward the Decatur House Museum. Stone looked behind him. The ganger was watching him now, not moving at all. Stone thought he saw
the man’s index finger twitch as though on a trigger pull.


The motorcade made the turn onto Pennsylvania and stopped in front of Blair House. The door to the lead stretch popped open.
These types of limo exits tended to happen fast for obvious reasons. You only remained exposed to a possible bullet fired
at long or short range for as brief a time as possible. Tonight, though, swiftness did not happen.


The stocky a