The Beautiful and Damned

In a remote corner of New Jersey is a nation within a nation—a refuge for fanatical converts and fervent believers. But within the confines of the secluded Islamic community of Kurmastan, plans are underway to spread fear, death, and untold destruction across America . . . and to deliver one fatal blow to the country's exposed and vulnerable heart.

On the East coast to supervise the activation of CTU's New York office, rogue agent Jack Bauer finds himself in the center of an unleashed hurricane perhaps already too powerful to stop. But if it isn't, in twenty-four hours the U.S. will be brought to its knees by a secret army grown on its own earth. And there is no one Jack Bauer can trust—because the roots of the terror go very deep . . . and frighteningly high.

Operating out of a nearly empty space in Los Angeles, the newly created CTU faces its first major crisis. A large amount of plastique explosive has vanished and could be anywhere—with criminals, crazies, outlaw bikers . . . or in the bloodstained hands of Islamic radicals. As powerful representatives of the world's major religions gather for a conference on faith, peace, and coexistence, agents of the newborn elite counterterrorism unit must chase elusive shadows through the underbelly of L.A. A nightmare of assassination and terror is looming, tied to the darkest secrets of the church—an explosive threat that must be exposed and defused within twenty-four hours, or violent repercussions will be felt around the world.

And only one man possesses the necessary passion, ruthless skill, and willingness to operate outside his jurisdiction and beyond the limits of the law: a dangerous rogue CIA operative . . . named Jack Bauer.

In Tender Is the Night, Fitzgerald deliberately set out to write the most ambitious and far-reaching novel of his career, experimenting radically with narrative conventions of chronology and point of view and drawing on early breakthroughs in psychiatry to enrich his account of the makeup and breakdown of character and culture.

Tender Is the Night is also the most intensely, even painfully, autobiographical of Fitzgerald's novels; it smolders with a dark, bitter vitality because it is so utterly true. This account of a caring man who disintegrates under the twin strains of his wife's derangement and a lifestyle that gnaws away at his sense of moral values offers an authorial cri de coeur, while Dick Diver's downward spiral into alcoholic dissolution is an eerie portent of Fitzgerald's own fate.

This book is written in three parts. "Book One: The Romantic Egotist"—the novel centers on Amory Blaine, a young Midwesterner who, convinced that he has an exceptionally promising future, attends boarding school and later Princeton University. He leaves behind his eccentric mother Beatrice and befriends a close friend of hers, Monsignor Darcy. While at Princeton he goes back to Minneapolis where he re-encounters Isabelle Borgé, a young lady whom he met as a little boy and starts a romantic relationship with her, but after a few days he becomes disillusioned by her and returns to Princeton. "Interlude"—Following their break-up, Amory is shipped overseas, to serve in the army in World War I. Fitzgerald had been in the army himself, but the war ended while he was still stationed on Long Island. Amory's experiences in the war are not described, other than to say later in the book that he was a bayonet instructor. "Book Two: The Education of a Personage"—After the war, Amory Blaine falls in love with a New York debutante named Rosalind Connage. Because he is poor, however, this relationship collapses as well; Rosalind decides to marry a wealthy man instead. A devastated Amory is further crushed to learn that his mentor Monsignor Darcy has died. The book ends with Amory's iconic lament, "I know myself, but that is all."

The world's most powerful leaders are gathering in Los Angeles for the G-8 summit, unaware that they have been targeted by two separate terrorist groups, each with its own lethal agenda. Uncovering and disarming one bomb would be difficult enough; eliminating both will be nearly impossible.

On the trail of a rabid Islamic assassin, rogue CTU agent Jack Bauer doesn't know that another conspiracy is brewing around him—a poisonous plot to violently dictate the future of the free world. If Bauer does nothing, in twenty-four hours the entire planet may be plunged into chaos, its primary heads of state ruthlessly destroyed. But if he acts, his daughter Kim will die instead.

Area 51: America's top-secret advanced military testing ground, hidden away in the Nevada desert, where the awesome weapons of tomorrow are being developed. But a mole inside the impregnable facility has been leaking highly advanced killing technology to America's worst enemies . . . who intend to turn its destructive power on an unsuspecting nation before the day is out.

Agent Jack Bauer has a mere twenty-four hours to derail a horrific plot, as a deadly endgame takes shape in the neon glare of nearby Las Vegas. But to do so, the rogue CTU operative will have to lead an impossible assault on Area 51 itself—and expose a lethal string of betrayal and corruption that leads from the terrorists to the underworld and all the way into the heart of the U.S. government.

Within twenty-four hours a nightmare will be unleashed that could cause the death of untold millions and devastate a great nation. It's a plot being carried out by the unlikeliest of allies. A powerful mole within the deepest reaches of U.S. Intelligence has secretly conscripted the very criminals he's been charged with investigating -- former IRA terrorists, Latino and Asian gang members, Middle Eastern assassins and others -- creating one of the most insidious terrorist networks law enforcement has yet to take down.

One man stands between the destroyers and the death tide: Jack Bauer, lone wolf operative for America's brand-new elite Counter Terrorist Unit. But he's three thousand miles from the CTU command center without backup in a strange city, New York. He's been artfully set up and is being hunted by the FBI for the murder of two of its agents. And time's almost up . . .

A powerful world leader is expected to join the Hollywood elite at a star-studded ceremony to be broadcast around the globe. But security has been severely compromised -- and a plot is already in motion to turn the Los Angeles Chamberlain Auditorium into a gruesome slaughterhouse.

When an on-line "Trojan Horse" detected by the CTU cyber unit sends up red flags, rogue operative Jack Bauer is called into action. He has less than twenty-four hours to prevent an unthinkable act of death and destruction from occurring -- a televised massacre intended to topple a foreign government and bring terror into millions of American households.

The countdown is on.

In less than twenty-four hours, in a palatial hideaway in the mountains of Colorado, a group of America's most powerful industrialists will be gathering for their annual summit. The bizarre disappearance of all the members of a local crackpot cult—and of two ATF agents assigned to keep an eye on them—may have no connection whatsoever to the impending high-powered conference. But with so many corporate titans grouped together in one location, CTU can't afford to take chances.

Sent to investigate, Jack Bauer is immediately plunged into a maelstrom of treachery, terror, and slaughter as he uncovers clues to a devastating conspiracy that could leave America's most essential institutions in ruins. And now the rogue CTU operative has only hours to prevent the unthinkable—before the relentlessly approaching storm of blood and fire rocks his nation to its foundations.

The next twenty-four hours will be crucial to America's survival. A determined band of terrorists holds the key to bringing down the government by plunging the country into darkness, fear, and chaos -- a nightmare born not in a distant enemy land . . . but rather in the heart of America itself.

After a mission gone bad, Counter Terrorist Unit operative Jack Bauer is relegated to infiltrating a dangerous homegrown militia group -- and stumbles upon information about an activated sleeper cell of Middle Eastern terrorists on American soil. But the roots of the insidious threat may go deeper than he suspects, firmly planted in the lies and treacheries of powerful government agencies. And without the trust and support of his CTU superiors, Jack may have to rely on the very fanatics he's sworn to destroy . . . or face an earth-shattering catastrophe at the end of the day.