White House Storm
White House Storm is the story of General Strom "Stormy" Thornton's attempt at an Internet-based military coup when he secretly discovers that Republican President Charley Davidson has Alzheimer's.
The coup begins with the unexpected murder of the General Gus Caesare, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after a gay tryst with a Mafia don. The killing leads Vice President Joan Queenan, an unmarried classic 40-something blonde from Dallas, to start digging on her own. Soon she discovers both the illness and the conspiracy. Queenan, considering Davidson's immense popularity as a former bodybuilder, movie star and California governor, knows she has to proceed carefully or risk being accused of usurpation of power, so she recruits an Army colonel and a Democratic U.S. Senator to carry out the investigation she can not.
Colonel Sam Chin has his own history of conspiracy: He is an eighth-generation descendant of a Chinese-American triad in New Orleans. Like Michael Corleone, Chin had chosen the Army as his refuge from the family business. Senator Fran Gaul, a U.S. Air Force major who retired while stationed at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas, had gone on to become a celebrated card sharp before running for senator.
Soon Gaul, one of the first officers in the Cyber Command while he was a major, discovers that cyber commander Thornton is behind the conspiracy. His investigation reveals that a lot, but not all, of the Army and Marine command is compromised and ready to participate in a full-out takeover. Gaul becomes a target. Kidnapped in a public restroom, he wakes up in a brothel in northern Nevada, where he is held captive in a locked boudoir. A longtime customer in such establishments in his gambling days, he recognizes the type of venue if not the location. Left with him as distractions are a prostitute and all manner of drugs and alcohol intended to reignite his old addictions.
When Chin and Queenan discover Gaul is missing, Chin goes into action. He realizes the entire military community is compromised by Stormy's conspiracy, so he turns to General Caesare's lover to employ his national network of connections. Soon they find Gaul, storm the brothel with mafiosi, and return him home with his findings.
Vice President Queenan realizes the conspiracy is the result of Davidson's inability to function fully, though he behaves normally most of the time. She decides the 25th Amendment must be invoked to make her Acting President so she can face down Stormy Thornton's impending coup. Still intent on avoiding any perception that she is a usurper, she recruits Cabinet members to take the lead. They call a Cabinet meeting to discuss the matter. While the Secretary of State and Attorney General present the situation to the other members, Army tanks begin rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue and turn to face the White House. Stormy Thornton has realized he has one last chance to stage his coup before Queenan takes power and fires him.
Before she can assume command she must face down the troops, Chin must weather a fire fight to take the message to Congress, and a shadowy subordinate of Thornton's emerges with an agenda of her own - one that might lead to nuclear war with Iran and China. Who is really in charge? Joan Queenan is determined that it be her, but is her determination enough?
Author Dale Napier intended this book as a tribute to Seven Days In May, the book/film from the early 1960s about a general planning a military coup. That general is based on Douglas MacArthur and the president is based on Adlai Stevenson. The Sam Chin character in White House Storm is loosely based on Kirk Douglas's rendition of the loyal colonel in the film adaption, while the Fran Gaul character parallels Burgess Meredith's alcoholic reporter in the film. White House Storm takes place between April 17 and May 1, making it fourteen days before May. The 1960 book was actually set in the mid-1970s after a war with Iran, from which the starring general emerged a hero. By a similar turn General Stormy Thornton is also a hero of a war with Iran. He completely disagrees with President Davidson's lenient Iranian policy, which is the basis of his motivation to stage a coup and the reason for the setting of the closing scenes.
References[edit]
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