The Brethren

The Brethren are three judges who meet in Trumble Prison, having been sent there for their various crimes. They spend hours together in the prison library setting up a scam to blackmail rich gay men who are married and who have a lot to lose if their homosexuality is revealed. With the help of their dishonest lawyer, they begin to make a
lot of money. The Brethren advertise for pen pals in gaymagazines (using the name Ricky). Their lawyer takes
care of collecting and delivering the letters to the prison and hiding the money in bank accounts in the Bahamas. When the Brethren receive a few letters with incriminating evidence, they demand money and threaten to reveal
their victims’ secrets. Meanwhile, the CIA director, Teddy Maynard, is trying to save the United States from Russianattacks, and possibly from a third world war. He creates
the perfect candidate, who will increase defense spending and build up the US military machine, in time for the next presidential election: Congressman Aaron Lake. What Maynard doesn’t know is that Lake has written two letters to “Ricky.” When he discovers Lake’s secret, he and his men at the CIA work to uncover the scam in order to cleanse theircandidate’s private life.
Chapter 1: The story is set at Trumble Federal Prison where three former judges comprise the Brethren, a law-keeping body inside the prison which resembles a courtroom. They solve disputes and their decisions are accepted by prisoners, guards and officials.
Chapter 2: Aaron Lake, a congressman from Arizona meets Teddy Maynard, the director of the CIA. Maynard offersLake the possibility of becoming the new American president as long as he campaigns to double their defense spending in his four years in office. This is needed because Russian Natli Chenkov is building up Russian military forces.
Chapter 3: The Brethren have organized a scam from prison. With the help of their lawyer, Trevor Carson, they published an ad in a gay magazine.
They pretend to beRicky, a young gay man who looks
for men. The people who answer the ad are well-respected middle-aged men. So the Brethren blackmail them and are getting rich.
Chapter 4: Aaron Lake accepts Maynard’s deal and so they plan the campaign.
Trevor Carson’s job is to find information about the men who fall into the scam and carries letters in and out of prison. Quince is one of those men who falls into thetrap and has paid $100,000.
Chapter 5: There is a terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Cairo. This favors Lake’s position. Sam Neville, the CIA agent in charge of watching Lake, discovers Lake has a post box under a false name. They know Aaron has a secret but wonder what it may be.
Chapter 6: Curtis Cates, owner of six jewelry stores, has also paid so that his secret does not come out. Thescam
is working. Maynard’s agents find a letter from Ricky to Al Konyers who is in fact, Lake. They answer it themselves and wait for Carson at the post office.
Chapter 7: The President attempts to destroy the terrorist who attacked the embassy and fails, which favors Lake’s campaign. In the meantime, the CIA invents Brant White and sends a letter to the Brethren who get very interested in him ashe seems to be very rich.
Chapter 8: Buster is a new inmate. He needs the Brethren to revise his case. They believe Buster is innocent and suggest he escape from prison, which is not difficult as there are no fences surrounding it.
Chapter 9: On the plane to Wichita after a very positive debate against his opponent, Governor Terry, Lake writes a letter to Ricky saying goodbye. But the plane makesan emergency landing, which forces Lake to hide the letter. It gets mailed together with thank-you notes and so by mistake, the Brethren discover Al Konyers is really Aaron Lake.
Chapter 10: The CIA agents make a deal with Trevor Carson: they will pay him $100,000 for Trevor’s help and information. He accepts and tells them about the organization, who the Brethren are, and how they handle the...