Terminal

" You know why we hate you? Not because you don' t know what we know, but because, if you did, you wouldn' t give a damn. So I' m sitting here, waiting to commit extortion, and planning a lot worse. I' m what you' d call a criminal. That' s why I' ll never be you. And I' m proud of it." --from "Terminal" When the former shot-caller of the country' s most feared white supremacist prison gang contacts Burke, he comes with references ... and the promise of a huge score. Terminally ill, the ex-con needs major cash to gamble on the long-shot possibility of a cure that' s available only in Switzerland. The only card he has to play is a small-time degenerate who paid for protection when they were in prison together. That professional bottom-feeder claims he personally buried the body of a thirteen-year-old girl who had been raped, tortured, and finally killed by three rich men more than thirty years ago--and that he' s holding irrefutable proof. But such a complicated extortion scheme needs the hand of a specialist crew, so Burke is offered a piece of the action. He and his outlaw family put together a lethal plan. If they can pull it off, Burke gets the two things he lives for: Money and Revenge. If not, " terminal" could prove to be more than just one man' s diagnosis. "Terminal" is a blistering thriller that forces Burke back in time--to keep a blood-commitment to a brother from his prison past, and to avenge the " cold-cased" rape-murder of a teenage girl.Vachss, Andrew is the author of 'Terminal', published 2007 under ISBN 9781410402769 and ISBN 1410402762.