When we last left John Wells, he was recovering from being tortured by the Chinese, then averting a confrontation between the two superpowers that could have led to WW III. All in a day’s work.
The jihadists want to make one mega strike against the Great Satan. They ‘convince’ a couple Russian cousins who work at a Siberian nuclear storage facility to steal two warheads. The Russians wonder why because without the activate codes, held in Moscow, the bombs are useless. No matter. With some intricate planning, two warheads leave the facility and are trucked to the coast of the Black Sea (bye-bye cousins) where they will be smuggled into Hamburg for a clandestine boat ride across the Atlantic to Canada to eventually find their way to the stable of a rural farmhouse near Corning, NY owned by an Egyptian trauma surgeon.
In NY, an Iraqi physicist plans to open the warheads (with the help of the surgeon and the mastermind thief), remove the enriched uranium and mold a new bomb, bypassing the codes, all in time to transport to DC just in time for the State of the Union. (and OMG, am I glad that Berenson didn’t follow Clancy’s lead from Sum of All Fears and go into ridiculous detail about making the bomb. He kept that part brief, thankfully).
Wells and his fiancé, a CIA honcho, are on their way to work when an accident on the bridge stalls traffic allowing 2 motorcycles to come up each side of their SUV and open fire injuring Exley.
Naturally, Wells is honked off . . . seriously honked off. The dead hitters were Russian, so off to Moscow to corner the connection where he learns a couple things. The man behind the hit is Kowalski, the arms dealer from The Ghost War. Kowalski also knows a bit about stealing uranium. But Kowalski knows a honked off Wells on your tail is no way to live, so he trades some sanity for a name.
The chase shifts into double secret overdrive now to find the bomb’s whereabouts. Dang near every FBI agent east of the Mississippi is on the case and some dogged detective work traces the three stooges to the NY farm, but they are gone.
It’s interesting to read a series like this so close together. It’s almost like a Saturday serial at the local theater as Wells goes from one peril to the next. Now that flippant statement should not be construed to be critical. This is high octane, testosterone driven, balls to the wall action with Wells as the center of attention, reminiscent of Mitch Rapp, Kirk McGarvey, et al. Is this what the Clandestine Service of the CIA is like. Probably not, Like the genre? No question you’ll like this one.
I’ve ordered #4 from the library. Stay tuned for the next installment.
East Coast Don
Berenson is great (not quite Daniel Silva, but then who is?) and even though I read this one out of sequence, it was gripping. Now, I'll drop back and catch The Ghost War.
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