VERA CAUSA

                                                          (true cause)

story synopis to a 57,000 word novel:

U.S. President Elliot Bryson senses his final days on Earth have arrived. The victim of an obscure illness beginning with blackouts has progressed into seizures; his physicians are bewildered, having exhausted their medical knowledge looking for a cure.

The haunting visions that the president sees when unconscious makes him determined to go down swinging against enemies in hopes of passing his Global Peace Plan.

Bryson's been trying to convince top governmental officials about the existence of a high-level terrorism backer organization called The Silent Group. Who they are and what is their motive is unclear, only that they've quietly infiltrated the U.S. military and government, The Vatican, the Kremlin, Israel, North Korea and other strategic zones.

If Elliot dies, Vice President Arthur Shingle will assume power. Thought by pundits to be a notoriously incompetent foul-mouthed buffon who prefers video games and being on late night talk shows, high level officials know otherwise. Art, a former NORAD missile engineer is the reigning Pentagon War Game champ, which prepares him if the nuclear match turns real.

With the president's life slipping away, Bryson prepares his bold peace plan into action by making amends with roguish Senator Paul McNair, a former Air Force hero. Bryson sends Paul to Rome as an emissary to gain support from Pope Sixtus who's contemplating his own radical gambit to help save the world-- releasing the true Fatima Third Secret.

Washington political news reporter firebrand Lynn Jacobs is reluctant to cover McNair's Vatican mission. She can't forget her horrid scandal-tinged romance with the senator in the last presidential campaign that cost him a spot on the winning ticket. Yet her network desperately needs her astute coverage, and she relents. They meet in a Rome cafe only to nearly die from a terrorist bomb tossed their way!

Scheming to thwart the president's peace plan is Senator David Warzon, whose down home facade hides an ego maniac aiming to seize the reins of government. As a Silent Group head, he conspires with Cardinal Scolari-- a dour, pitiless intellectual who manipulates the pope. Their plot to jump start Armageddon and then fill in the power vacuum is certain.

The major crisis for the president is his son, John--a rugged college aged gay who finds White House living too difficult to be himself. Turning his frustration against his father, he's often arrested for drinking and brawling.

When the president's health takes a drastic downward turn, he's secretly hospitalized. First Lady Beverly Bryson displays her own leadership skill by rallying her husband's close allies while also convincing her son to make amends with his father.

Upon Elliot slipping into a coma, John finds the courage to take on his father's foremost nemesis--Warson.

With the president all but dead, the Silent Group lets out its first ferocious roar by kidnapping Pope Sixtus while he's on a peace pilgrimmage in Israel!

VERA CAUSA zips along with the speed of a Japanese express train, stopping only to give insight into how humans work... with richly drawn villains jumping off the page to battle untested heroes who learn to fight with the tenacity of John Wayne and Mahatma Ghandi rolled into one!