Excerpt from The Brethren by John Grisham, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Lake's first reaction was to suppress a laugh, which he did by smiling, then coughing. He tried to compose himself, and said, "You must be kidding." "You know I'm not kidding, Mr. Lake," Teddy said sternly, and there was no doubt that Aaron Lake had walked into a well-laid trap.

Lake cleared his throat and completed the job of composing himself. "All right, I'm listening."

"It's very simple. In fact, its simplicity makes it beautiful. You're too late to file for New Hampshire, and it doesn't matter anyway. Let the rest of the pack slug it out there. Wait until it's over, then startle everyone by announcing your candidacy for President. Many will ask, 'Who the hell is Aaron Lake?' And that's fine. That's what we want. They'll find out soon enough. "Initially, your platform will have only one plank. It's all about military spending. You're a doomsayer, with all sorts of dire predictions about how weak our military is becoming. You'll get everybody's attention when you call for doubling our military spending."

"Doubling?"

"It works, doesn't it? It got your attention. Double it during your four-year term."

"But why? We need more military spending, but a twofold increase would be excessive."

"Not if we're facing another war, Mr. Lake. A war in which we push buttons and launch Tomahawk missiles by the thousands, at a million bucks a pop. Hell, we almost ran out of them last year in that Balkan mess. We can't find enough soldiers and sailors and pilots, Mr. Lake. You know this. The military needs tons of cash to recruit young men. We're low on everything--soldiers, missiles, tanks, planes, carriers. Chenkov is building now. We're not. We're still downsizing, and if we keep it up through another Administration, then we're dead."

Teddy's voice rose, almost in anger, and when he stopped with "we're dead," Aaron Lake could almost feel the earth shake from the bombing.

"Where does the money come from?" he asked.

"Money for what?"

"The military."

Teddy snorted in disgust, then said, "Same place it always comes from. Need I remind you, sir, that we have a surplus?"

"We're busy spending the surplus."

"Of course you are. Listen, Mr. Lake, don't worry about the money. Shortly after you announce, we'll scare the hell out of the American people. They'll think you're half-crazy at first, some kind of wacko from Arizona who wants to build even more bombs. But we'll jolt them. We'll create a crisis on the other side of the world, and suddenly Aaron Lake will be called a visionary. Timing is everything. You make a speech about how weak we are in Asia, few people listen. Then we'll create a situation over there that stops the world, and suddenly everyone wants to talk to you. It will go on like that, throughout the campaign. We'll build the tension on this end. We'll release reports, create situations, manipulate the media, embarrass your opponents. Frankly, Mr. Lake, I don't expect it to be that difficult."

"You sound like you've been here before."

"No. We've done some unusual things, all in an effort to protect this country. But we've never tried to swing a presidential election." Teddy said this with an air of regret.

Lake slowly pushed his chair back, stood, stretched his arms and legs, and walked along the table to the end of the room. His feet were heavier. His pulse was racing. The trap had been sprung; he'd been caught.

He returned to his seat. "I don't have enough money," he offered across the table. He knew it was received by someone who'd already thought about it. Teddy smiled and nodded and pretended to give this some thought. Lake's Georgetown home was worth $400,000. He kept about half that much in mutual funds and another $100,000 in municipal bonds. There were no significant debts. He had $40,000 in his reelection account.

Excerpted from The Brethren by John Grisham. Copyright© 2000 by Belfry Holdings, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.