Hunter: A Thriller (43 page)

Opened it and pulled out the drivers’ licenses.

Spread them on the mattress next to him.

Brad Roark Flynn

Victor Edward
Rostand

Wayne Alan Grayson

Shane Michael Stone

Edmond
Dantes

Lex
Talionis

Then pulled out his wallet. Removed his driver’s license. Tossed it next to them.

Dylan Lee Hunter

He looked into the mirror, then down at all the cards.

On several, the resemblance was close to the face in the mirror.

But there were beards and wigs and mustaches on others, different colors.

And makeup.

And a great latex mask on one.

He picked up the wine glass from the floor. Stood, unsteady now.

Lifted his glass to the mirror.

“Gentlemen—a toast now to our sire: the late, great Matt Malone. Mr. Malone, here we are. Your bastard offspring, standing in your shadow. Living not as real men, but as ghosts.”

He took a last big swallow. Stared at himself.

His face in the mirror looked sad.

He sat again.

“Who are you?” he asked softly.

*

He heard the sound of a car engine approach, then die.

Heard quick steps marching up the porch stairs.

Heard the cabin door creak open.

Heard her call out:

“Dylan?”

And knew.

Robert
Bidinotto
earned a national reputation as an authority on criminal justice while writing investigative articles as a former Staff Writer for Reader’s Digest. His famous 1988 article “Getting Away with Murder” stirred a national controversy about crime and prison furlough programs during that year’s presidential campaign, and it is widely credited with having affected the outcome of the election. It was
honored
by the American Society of Magazine Editors as one of five finalists for the National Magazine Award for “Best Magazine Article in the Public Interest Category.”

Robert is author of the acclaimed book
Criminal Justice? The Legal System vs. Individual Responsibility
,
w
ith a foreword by John Walsh of the “
America
’s Most Wanted” television show,
and of
Freed to Kill
—
a compendium of horror stories exposing the failings of the justice system.

His many articles, essays, book and film reviews also have appeared in
the
Washington Times,
the
Boston
Herald, Success
,
The American Spectator
,
Writer’s Digest,
and other publications. Robert was awarded the Free Press Association’s Mencken Award in 1985 for “Best Feature Story,” and he has been honored by the
National
Victim
Center
and other victim-rights organizations for his outspoken public advocacy on behalf of crime victims. As an editor, in 2007, he won the magazine industry’s top honor for editorial excellence—the
Folio
gold “Eddie” Award. A popular speaker, he has appeared as a guest on scores of major talk programs.

With his wife, Cynthia, and their stridently individualistic cat, Luna, Robert makes his home on the
Chesapeake Bay
, where he is working on the further adventures of Dylan Hunter.

Did you enjoy
HUNTER
? Would you like to see more stories featuring Dylan, Annie, Wonk,
Danika
, Garrett, and, of course, Luna?

Then I’d be grateful if you’d recommend
HUNTER
to your friends, on social-networking sites and
blogs
, and in “reader reviews” on Amazon,
Smashwords
, and other online book retailers. And tell your local bookstore that they should stock the print edition.

The success of this, Dylan Hunter’s first adventure, will determine his future. Surely you wouldn’t want the vigilante to
retire
, would you? Don’t you want to know what happens in future tales, such as
Crusader
,
Bad Deeds
, and
Blind Copy?

Then, please spread the word that
HUNTER
is available as an
ebook
and as a print book.

This book has been released in
ebook
formats for the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo,
iPad
, and others. If you don’t have an
ebook
reader, you can download free “Kindle apps” from the Amazon Kindle website, then read the
ebook
on your own preferred device.

HUNTER
also has been published as a trade paperback by Avenger Books, available on Amazon.com. You can obtain a personally inscribed copy—either for yourself or as a gift for someone special—at the Avenger Books website (link below). When you make your purchase there, please tell me how you want me to inscribe it. It will be shipped to you within 24 hours.

Bookstores and retail outlets interested in carrying
HUNTER
should contact:

Avenger Books

P.O. Box
555

Chester
,
MD
21619

www.AvengerBooks.com

If you’d like to contact me, drop me an email at:
[email protected]

I comment on thrillers, “
indie
” publishing, and fiction generally at “The Vigilante Author”
blog
:
www.bidinotto.com
And if you’re intrigued by the provocative viewpoints expressed in
HUNTER
, check out my
non
fiction
blog
:
http://bidinotto.blogspot.com

You also can find me
on
Facebook
:
https://www.facebook.com/bidinotto
And on Twitter:
@
RobertBidinotto

Like the story of its title character, the story of
HUNTER
grew from incidents in my own life. And while I hope the tale provides readers with grand entertainment, my purpose in writing this novel could not be more serious.

For six years during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was an investigative journalist for
Reader’s Digest
, specializing in “true crime” stories. That preoccupation began when I investigated, then wrote, the now-famous article in the July 1988 issue about the
Massachusetts
prison furlough program. Titled “Getting Away with Murder,” the article made the name “Willie Horton” famous during that year’s presidential election. Political historians say that it had a major impact on the outcome of the election between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.

But its major impact on
me
was to raise my awareness about the plight of crime victims, and how they were routinely abused, ignored, and further victimized by the criminal justice system.

During the course of that investigation, I met rape victims. Parents of murdered children. Countless targets of thugs who had been released, irresponsibly and prematurely, into halfway houses—into unsupervised “furloughs” from prison—into early parole and “diversionary” probation “supervision”—a host of other “alternatives to incarceration.”

The faces of those victims haunted me during many sleepless nights.

Their faces haunt me still.

During subsequent investigations, I learned little-known truths about the systemic leniency of the criminal justice system—and about those who made it so. I wrote investigative articles under such titles as “Freed to Rape Again,” “Revolving-Door Justice,” “The Law Criminals Love,” and “When Criminals Go Free.”

I learned that there was an “Excuse-Making Industry” of intellectuals in the social-science establishment: philosophers, psychologists, political scientists, legal scholars, sociologists, criminologists, economists, and historians, whose theories have shaped our modern legal system. That “industry” also consists of an activist wing of social workers, counselors, therapists, legal-aid and civil-liberties lawyers, “inmate rights” advocates, “progressive” politicians, and activists.

It was this industry which, in the Sixties and Seventies, initiated a quiet revolution in the criminal justice system, and routed the last of those who believed that the legal system’s purpose should be to apprehend and punish criminals. Instead, the Excuse-Making Industry—united in the belief that the criminal isn’t responsible for his actions—rejected the fundamental premise of the justice system:
justice.

In 1994, I published a book,
Criminal Justice? The Legal System vs. Individual Responsibility
—an anthology of articles by me, and by legal scholars, exposing this corruption. I also wrote a short book of horror stories documenting the bloody consequences of the Excuse-Making Industry’s policies, titled
Freed to Kill.

I tell you this, because you should know that the descriptions in
HUNTER
of the workings of the legal system, of “alternatives to incarceration,” of “diversionary sentences,” of crimes by predators recycled constantly from prisons to streets and back, and of the hideous personal impact on crime victims,
are accurate accounts of the actual workings of today’s legal system.

For example, the criminal histories in
HUNTER
are composites of many real individuals. The memo on the bulletin board in Chapter 10, listing all the sports opportunities in one prison, is a verbatim transcript of an actual memo, in my possession, posted at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in
Norfolk
(sent to me by an outraged corrections officer). Descriptions of inmate amenities are drawn from my personal observations during visits to prisons all over the United States, while researching my November 1994
Digest
article, “Must Our Prisons Be Resorts?” The meeting of the crime-victims group in Chapter 14 was inspired by a dinner meeting I had with members of Parents of Murdered Children in
Massachusetts
.

So, if you think the presentation in
HUNTER
of criminals, outrages in the legal system, and horrors inflicted on victims is in any way exaggerated, I will only say: I wish.

I hope that
HUNTER
helps to bring public attention to this enduring, despicable state of affairs, and to bring to crime victims a measure of the justice owed to them by our legal system.

The criminal justice system was one of the two major settings for the novel. The other was the shadow world of the CIA and intelligence agencies—a setting I know far less about, none of it from personal experience. Here, I make fewer claims for authenticity. But I wasn’t striving for journalistic accuracy: I was hoping only to create fictional persuasiveness.

Still, I’m delighted that several professionals in the intelligence community—some of whom offered input during my research and editing—assure me that my rendition of the activities, skills, and methods of spymasters,
NOCs
, CIA paramilitary teams, and even Dylan Hunter himself seem plausible. Two intelligence veterans from two different agencies thought that Matt Malone’s imaginative method of acquiring his many aliases appeared to be
possible.
Regarding the details of
spycraft
—and the problems within the CIA—I relied heavily on published sources, including books by former Agency case officers.

While many of the locations in
HUNTER
actually exist, I’ve treated them creatively, oftentimes making up details to enhance the story. For example, I hope that no reader makes a pilgrimage to
Linden
,
Virginia
, and pesters the good residents there. I assure you that the “government road,” the “CIA safe house,” and the sniper location are all complete fabrications. The same goes for the romantic inn where Dylan and Annie launch their relationship: It’s a composite, borrowed from several places, and with invented ambiance.

As for other aspects of the story and characters, I’ll address them in time on my
blog
, “The Vigilante Author”: www.bidinotto.com

Writing this, my first novel, has been a lifelong dream. The enthusiastic advance response to
HUNTER
has been better than I had dared to anticipate. I’m grateful to you for welcoming my fictional avatar into your homes, and, I hope, into your hearts.