Director,National Intelligence and the CIA

Something is amiss at the White House. Don Hastings, the Director, National Intelligence (DNI), smells it. He can't understand why the President is hellbent to kill the Lebanese banker, Michel Antoun, at all costs. Antoun, the only person tipping the U.S. off that a secretive conspiracy is raising havoc on global oil prices, is now firmly in American gunsights on orders of the Oval Office. Shouldn't the man be allowed to live a little longer so that he might divulge exactly what is going on? The Gambit embarks on a tense tale of the internal struggle of the DNI as he wrestles between his official duties and patriotism versus a definition of the true interests of the country. Perhaps the best interests of the country are not being served by the White House.

Don Hastings has risen to the top of the American intelligence community with stops as Director, CIA, and ambassador to an Eastern European country along the way. Not bad for a former CIA operative with a penchant for sniper operations. In fact, the sniper experience and contacts become helpful along the way. As DNI, Hastings has constant contact with the President through his daily intelligence briefings. The Gambit recounts a few briefings entailing the mysterious man from Beirut. Exactly why did the banker approach the U.S. in the first place, adamantly requiring guaranties of personal safety as the price for delivering a list of alleged enemies of the U.S.? A list which conveniently must be removed. A trap? And if the U.S. doesn't play ball? Well, perhaps a few juicy targets of the global petroleum industry might be ripe for assault for the sole purpose of boosting oil prices everywhere. Just in time, of course, for the upcoming presidential elections. The banker will feed those enemies to the U.S. on the installment plan, contingent upon U.S. performance in removing each batch. In the meantime, oil prices will spiral out of control if the Americans are not proactive.

Hastings is the only contact with the secretive Lebanese. Unknown to the rest of the government, Hastings actually made the initial approach as a favor, shrouded in mystery, to another. Even he is surprised when the banker seizes upon the advance in a curious manner, throwing out his gambit, i.e. his approach to the U.S. to free himself from his precarious situation in Lebanon, providing the scoop that an oil conspiracy is underway. Over time, Hastings comes to understand that, despite the bluster of Antoun to the contrary, the man from Beirut is not the real ringleader of the conspiracy; instead, he is desperately trying to reveal the real players to the U.S. The President, however, is not a patient man in the process. And why, really?

The Gambit details the sublety and cunning of Hastings as the drama unfolds, oil markets in complete disarray, and an incumbent president increasingly desperate to terminate the banker. Slowly, as he pieces through the puzzle, the DNI comes to understand that it perhaps might be better to keep Antoun alive long enough to understand the full dimensions of the treachery underway. Throwing caution out the window, he pursues a course of using every tool available, including the full resources of the CIA, to dispatch every enemy of the country revealed, reaching out as necessary for extracurricular help to facilitate the process. In fact, certain enemies might actually reside in the White House, where political corruption reeks. Or, in Riyadh. Maybe the banker deserves to live after all.

The enemies of Antoun are the enemies of the country. The Gambit depicts its stark realization by Hastings as he increasingly comes to know too much. The former sniper becomes a target himself, courtesy of the President, but, in the end, it is Hastings who has a nice little surprise for the American electorate as Election Day nears.

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