Worst Case - James Patterson [1]
Run for Your Life (with Michael Ledwidge)
STAND-ALONE THRILLERS
Sail (with Howard Roughan)
Swimsuit (with Maxine Paetro)
NON-FICTION
Torn Apart (with Hal and Cory Friedman)
The Murder of King Tut (with Martin Dugard)
ROMANCE
Sundays at Tiffany’s (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)
THE WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB SERIES
1
st to Die
2
nd Chance (with Andrew Gross)
3
rd Degree (with Andrew Gross)
4
th of July (with Maxine Paetro)
The 5
th Horseman (with Maxine Paetro)
The 6
th Target (with Maxine Paetro)
7
th Heaven (with Maxine Paetro)
8
th Confession (with Maxine Paetro)
9
th Judgement (with Maxine Paetro, to be
published April 2010)
FAMILY OF PAGE-TURNERS
MAXIMUM RIDE SERIES
The Angel Experiment
School’s Out Forever
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
The Final Warning
Max
Fang (to be published February 2010)
Manga Volume 1 (with NaRae Lee)
Manga Volume 2 (with NaRae Lee)
DANIEL X SERIES
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (with
Michael Ledwidge)
Daniel X: Alien Hunter Graphic Novel (with
Leopoldo Gout)
Daniel X: Watch the Skies (with Ned Rust)
Daniel X: Demons and Druids (with Adam
Sadler, to be published July 2010)
WITCH & WIZARD SERIES
Witch & Wizard (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)
For Susan Maloney, Sue Najork, Marlene Stang,
and Kary Tangredi—J.P.
For Mary Ann O’Donnell, World’s Greatest Adviser.
Special thanks to “Uncle” Ed Kelly and Judge Joe Len—M.L.
WORST CASE James Patterson&Michael LedwidgeCENTURY • LONDON
Prologue
GIVE PEACE A CHANCE . . . OR ELSE
One
THE STOCKY MAN with the salt-and-pepper hair felt light-headed as he crossed beneath the marble arch into Washington Square Park. He dropped his backpack, took off his circular glasses, and blotted the sudden tears in his eyes with the sleeve of his ancient jeans jacket.
He hadn’t planned on breaking down, but My God, he thought, wiping at his rugged, lined face. Now he knew how Vietnam veterans felt when they visited their Wall down in Washington, DC. If veterans of the antiwar movement had a monument—a Wall of Tears—it was here, where it all began, Washington Square Park.
Staring out over the windy park, he remembered all the incredible things that had occurred here. The antiwar demonstrations. Bob Dylan in the 4th Street basement clubs, singing about which way the wind was blowing. The candlelit faces of his old friends as they passed bottles and smoke. The whispered promises they had made to one another to change things, to make things better.
He looked out over the Friday-afternoon crowd by the center fountain, the people hovering over the chess tables, as if he might find a familiar face. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? he thought with a shrug. They’d all moved on, like he had. Grown up. Sold out. Or were underground. Figuratively. Literally.
That time, his time, was almost completely faded now, just about dead and gone.
Just about, he thought as he knelt and removed the box of flyers from his knapsack.
But not quite.
On each of the five hundred sheets was a three-paragraph message entitled LOVE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.
Who says you can’t go home? he thought. A quote from Keith Richards popped into his head as he stacked the sheets.
“I got news for you. We’re still a bunch of tough bastards. String us up and we still won’t die.”
You said it, Keith, he thought, giggling to himself. Right on, brother. You and me both.
More and more over the last year, his thoughts kept coming back to his youth. It was the only time in his entire life when he’d felt like he meant something, when he’d felt he was making a positive difference.
Was coming back now after all this time a midlife crisis? Maybe. He didn’t care. He’d decided he wanted that feeling again. Especially in light of recent events. The world now was in even more dire straits than the one he and his friends had fought to affect. It was time to do it again. Wake people up before it was too late.
That’s why he was here. It had worked once. They had, after all, stopped a war. Maybe it could happen again. Even if he was a lot