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In a heavily guarded mansion in a posh Virginia suburb, a man and a woman start to make love, trapping Luther Whitney, a career break-in artist, behind a secret wall. Then the passion turns deadly, and Luther is running into the night. Because what he has just seen is a brutal murder involving Alan Richmond, the president of the United States, the man with . . . Absolute Power.

CHAPTER ONE

He gripped the steering wheel loosely as the car, its lights out, drifted slowly to a stop. A few last scraps of gravel kicked out of the tire treads and then silence enveloped him. He took a moment to adjust to the surroundings and then pulled out a pair of worn but still effective night-vision binoculars. The house slowly came into focus. He shifted easily, confidently in his seat. A duffel bag lay on the front seat beside him. The car's interior was faded but clean.

The car was also stolen. And from a very unlikely source.

A pair of miniature palm trees hung from the rearview mirror. He smiled grimly as he looked at them. Soon he might be going to the land of palms. Quiet, blue, see-through water, powdery salmon-colored sunsets and late mornings. He had to get out. It was time. For all the occasions he had said that to himself, this time he felt sure.

Sixty-six years old, Luther Whitney was eligible to collect Social Security, and was a card-carrying member of AARP. At that age most men had settled down into second careers as grandfathers, part-time raisers of their children's children, when weary joints were eased down into familiar recliners and arteries finished closing up with the clutter of a lifetime.

Luther had had only one career his entire life. It involved breaking and entering into other people's homes and places of business, usually in the nighttime, as now, and taking away as much of their property as he could feasibly carry.

Though clearly on the wrong side of the law, Luther had never fired a gun or hurled a knife in anger or fear, except for his part in a largely confusing war fought where South and North Korea were joined at the hip. And the only punches he had ever thrown were in bars, and those only in self-defense as the suds made men braver than they should have been.

Luther only had one criterion in choosing his targets: he took only from those who could well afford to lose it. He considered himself no different from the armies of people who routinely coddled the wealthy, constantly persuading them to buy things they did not need.

A good many of his sixty-odd years had been spent in assorted medium-and then maximum-security correctional facilities along the East Coast. Like blocks of granite around his neck, three prior felony convictions stood to his credit in three different states. Years had been carved out of his life. Important years. But he could do nothing to change that now.

He had refined his skills to where he had high hopes that a fourth conviction would never materialize. There was absolutely nothing mysterious about the ramifications of another bust: he would be looking at the full twenty years. And at his age, twenty years was a death penalty. They might as well fry him, which was the way the Commonwealth of Virginia used to handle its particularly bad people. The citizens of this vastly historic state were by and large a God-fearing people, and religion premised upon the notion of equal retribution consistently demanded the ultimate payback. The commonwealth succeeded in disposing of more death row criminals than all but two states, and the leaders, Texas and Florida, shared the moral sentiments of their Southern sister. But not for simple burglary; even the good Virginians had their limits.

Yet with all that at risk he couldn't take his eyes off the home -- mansion, of course, one would be compelled to call it. It had engrossed him for several months now.

 

"I was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1960. I received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia. I practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C., as both a trial and a corporate lawyer.

"I am married, have two wonderful children, and remain in my home state, Virginia.

"I have published five novels -- Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth, and Saving Faith -- and a sixth, Wish You Well, is to be released in October, 2000. I have also published one novella for the Dutch entitled Office Hours, written for Holland's Year 2000 "Month of the Thriller." I was the featured writer for this year's celebration.

"My works have also been published in USA Today Magazine, Britain's Tatler Magazine and New Statesman, UVA Lawyer, Italy's Panorama Magazine, and Germany's Welt am Sonntag.

"I have also authored five original screenplays, the most current of which has nothing to do with murder or mayhem. It is a family drama set in the South during 1940, and it is the inspiration for my newest novel, Wish You Well.

"To my remarkable delight, my works have been translated into over thirty languages and sold in more than seventy countries. All of my books have been national and international bestsellers. I am published under my own name, David Baldacci, in all countries except in the country of my ancestors, Italy, where I am compelled to publish under a pseudonym. The reason for this requirement remains unclear to me.

"Over 18 million copies of my books are in print worldwide.

"Castle Rock entertainment made Absolute Power into a major motion picture starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman. The novel Absolute Power won Britain's prestigious W.H. Smith's Thumping Good Read award for fiction in 1997, and was nominated for a major literary award in Italy.

"Total Control was sold to Columbia TriStar for a four-hour mini-series to be aired on CBS. The paperback version of Total Control was a bestselling favorite for the traveling public for over one year, even though it opens with a plane crash.

"The Winner's sales topped those of my first two novels, no doubt aided by revealing in the novel how to fix the lottery and win a hundred million dollars! The Winner received a starred review in Publishers Weekly.

"The Simple Truth was the first of my novels in which part of the plot was based upon an actual event. President Clinton selected The Simple Truth as his favorite novel of 1999.

"Saving Faith is a novel about how Washington, D.C. really doesn't work, and why so many people are just fine with that. During my research for the novel, I spent so much time with politicians that I briefly contemplated running for office, until my wife sensibly put a stop to that nonsense. Saving Faith reached number one on the Publishers Weekly national bestseller list.

"My books have been publicly discussed and/or read by everyone from Howard Stern and Don Imus to Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh, from George Bush and Bill Clinton to Charlie Rose and Larry King -- which goes to show that many types of people know how to read!

"I am currently working with producers Lee Rich, Karen Spiegel, and Paramount Television on a television mystery series that I created, and that is being developed in conjunction with

 

Absolute Power by David Baldacci
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