There is something intoxicating about a secret. There's something terrifying about a shadow war. You may not know much about Laos or the world of WHITE POWDER. You aren't supposed to. Drugs, sex, and murder combined with personal and national agendas to create the hidden world of heroin where governments and drug empires collide. WHITE POWDER is the story of US Army officer, Craig Burton, who became something else. Burton's metamorphosis can't be explained except within the context of others whose roles played a part in the outcome. It's a story of spies from various nations with both personal and national agendas who congregated in Laos and were willing to do ANYTHING to meet their objectives. The end inevitably justified the means. Lastly, it's also the story of Charlotte Sabon, who met Craig Burton, fell in love and was willing to commit murder to keep him. In the end she got both what she wanted and what she deserved. White Powder: A Novel of the CIA and the Secret War in Laos has been my first published novel, but as those who write can understand, it's by no means my first effort at writing. I appreciate the support I've received and the great feedback from people who have read the novel.- The Black Scorpions: A Novel of Outsourced War is a sequel to this story and is set fifty years later (in the present environment). I took the story into the present because I wanted to avoid the vast regurgitation necessary in most sequels to tell the first story over in case the reader hadn't read it. The Black Scorpions stands on its own but if you've read White Powder , you'll see familiar faces and how things evolved in the world of Craig and Charlotte Burton. The Black Scorpions should be available in Mid-2011. "Really my dear chap, you seem to be reading too many romantic thrillers. This is no romance dear friend, this is reality." --John Forsythe, The Day of the Jacka l "I need to find a killer. A man who will do murder but who isn't a total sociopath. Do you know how hard that is to find? The Army ain't the best place to look. The plain truth is that most soldiers are motivated to fight by group pressures, not because they're murderers by nature. Some of them think they're killers because the business of life taking is ladened with the baggage of false expectations. It's just like sex in that respect. Killing produces the same satisfaction that accompanies masturbation. It's a strange rite of manhood where killing becomes like sex and sex becomes like killing. The problem is finding one who will deliver the goods without remorse or guilt and won't go off the reservation on me. I need somebody who will attack problems like a terrier shaking a rat." -- Walter Kennedy, CIA - Vientiane, Laos---Charlotte stood quietly watching as Craig uncorked the wine, Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes. The sweet wine was a nice touch but it didn't matter. She would have followed him home if he'd asked her to have a glass of river water from the turbid, malarial Mekong. The night was inevitable, the wine a polite excuse to hide behind. Polite behavior was only a mask to shade her intentions.---Money has a perfume all its own. It's 1961 and the only cash crop produced in Laos is opium that is refined in clandestine labs in France. The CIA's Secret War is gaining momentum - and it always comes back to WHITE POWDER. Larry B. Lambert served in various capacities in the intelligence community, as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy, serving with the SEAL Teams in large and small wars and in law enforcement, managing very complex investigations.