STATE OF THE UNION by David Callahan - BOOK - ADVANCE READING COPY

Lieutenant Zachary Turzin is the most decorated soldier on active duty in the U.S. armed services: A Gulf War veteran, he is fluent in Arabic and Farsi and flies Blackhawk helicopters. He's led a Green Beret team to one of the most dangerous places on earth and received a Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery. But nothing has prepared for him for the perils of his new assignment: the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. Everyone wants a piece of him, including two of the capital's most influential men. Admiral Jeffrey Forsten is the real power in the Pentagon and a leader of messianic drive. Douglas Sherman is a politician of enormous ambition - and ruthless tactics. Bound together by three decades of dark secrets and the common dream of limitless power, Forsten and Sherman face only one obstacle: the U.S. Constitution. Zach leaps at the chance to move to the Pentagon's nerve center, working under Admiral Forsten. But when he discovers a crime in Forsten's past and the truth about his alliance with Sherman, a shadowy world of intrigue and death opens up, with an ex-Green Beret who kills for pleasure on his trail, and a beautiful woman who may be someone to believe in - or someone to place him in even greater danger. Forsten and Sherman have a plan of stunning ingenuity almost too monstrous to comprehend. With the President and the FBI paralyzed by indecision, only Zach has a chance to stop a conspiracy that will bring down the government. As time runs out, he embarks upon his most risky mission yet. From the inner sanctums of the Pentagon to the White House's Situation Room and Oval Office, from the deserts of Oman to the mountains of Lebanon, State of the Union masterfully explores the dark side of power and politics in the post-Cold War world and lays out a chillingly believable scenario for a right-wing military coup.