Saving Faith By: David Baldacci
Saving Faith By: David Baldacci
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To my dear friend Jennifer Steinberg, for tracking down so much
information for me. You’d make a great PI!
To my wife, Michelle, for always telling me the truth about the books.
To Neal Schiff at the FBI for his continued help and cooperation with
my novels.
A very special thanks to FBI Special Agent Shawn Henry, who was very
generous with his time, expertise, and enthusiasm, and who helped me
avoid some serious gaffes in the story. Shawn, your comments made the
book much better.
To Martha Pope for her valuable, insightful knowledge on Capitol Hill
matters, and her patience with a political neophyte. Martha, you’d
make a great teacher!
To Bobby Rosen, Diane Dewhirst, and Marty Paone for sharing their
experiences and institutional memories with me.
To Tom De Pont Dale Barto, and Charles Nelson of Nations Bank for
assistance on financial and tax matters.
To Joe Duffey for enlightening me on foreign aid policy and procedures.
And to his wife, Anne Wexler, for sharing her valuable time and insight
with me.
A very, very special thanks to my friend Bob Schule for going above and
beyond the call of duty in helping me on this book, for not only
providing fascinating details about his long and distinguished career
in Washington, but also for casting a wide net among his friends and
colleagues in order to help me better understand politics, lobbying,
and how Washington really works. Bob, you’re a wonderful friend and a
true professional.
To Congressman Rod Blagojevich (D. Ill) for allowing me a glimpse into
the life of a member of Congress.
To Congressman Tony Hall (D. Ohio) for helping me better understand
the plight of the world’s poor, and how that issue plays out (or
doesn’t) in Washington.
To my good friend and family member Congressman John Baldacci (D.
Maine) for his support and assistance with this project. If everyone
in Washington were like John, the plot of this book would seem totally
implausible.
To Larry Benoit and Bob Beene for their help on everything from
lobbying to the nuts and bolts of governing, to all the little nooks
and crannies in the U.S. Capitol building. To them I owe one of my
favorite scenes in the book.
To Mark Jordan of Baldino’s Lock and Key for educating me on the ways
of security and phone systems and how to crack them. Mark, you’re the
best.
To Steve Jennings for reading every word as usual and helping to make
them better.
To my dear friends David and Catherine Broome for exposing me to the
North Carolina settings and for their continued encouragement and
support.
To all those other people who contributed to this novel but for various
reasons wish to remain anonymous. I couldn’t have done it without all
of you.
To my editor and my friend Frances Jalet-Miller. Her skill,
encouragement, and gentle persuasion are all that any writer could ever
want in an editor. To many more books together, Francie. Last, but
absolutely not least, to Larry, Maureen, Jamie, Tina, Emi, Jonathan,
Karen Torres, Martha Otis, Jackie Joiner, and Jackie Meyer, Bruce
Paonessa and Peter Mauceri, and all the rest of the Warner Books
family. It takes all of us to make this happen.
All the people listed above gave me the knowledge and help I needed to
write this novel. How I used that assistance to conjure up all sorts
of shenanigans, misdeeds, outright crimes, and depictions of felonious
and conspiratorial souls in Saving Faith, however, is my responsibility
alone.
SAVING FAITH
CHAPTER 1
THE SOMBER GROUP OF MEN SAT IN A LARGE ROOM that rested far below
ground accessed by only a single, high-speed elevator. The chamber had
been secretly built during the early 1960s under the guise of
renovating the private building that squatted over it. The original
plan, of course, was to use this “super-bunker” as a refuge during a
nuclear attack. This facility was not for the top leaders of American
government; it was for those whose level of relative un importance
dictated that they probably wouldn’t be able to get out in time but who