Krishna
It really starts slow and looks like it is going to be one of those average stories that you begin and then regret reading it. But it gets better. Way better.
Zalmay Siddiqui is given three minutes to clear out in the middle east by his American contact since he has been exposed in his spy role. His agent Cougar sends him to US but stays back.
In another scene, a peaceful man Dan Morgan is living a peaceful life. He has a wife, a dog Neika and he goes running to stay fit, recognizing that his body rebels a bit as he is over forty. His daughter Alex loves him but argues as she is a very left wing person and thinks his dad does not share his concerns. However, an old associate comes and tells him that Cougar is dead and only Dan can ‘help now’.
Zalmay escapes in a truck, but is surrounded by Taliban in a village. This whole story is told from a purely American perspective. Even Afghans like Zalmay think and talk like Americans, dream of going to the US and carry vital information to America risking their lives. They are convinced of the pure goodness of the American power and the ‘obvious evil’ of the terrorists, even if the terrorists are from their own clan.
The theme is simplistic: Oh what great heroes the Americans are and what uncouth ruffians the Taliban are… But for a thriller, it probably does not matter. Even so, the thriller part also sucks a bit. The Taliban who invaded the village are resisted by the whole village in a show of defiance and everyone was ready to die rather than submit to those savages. Luckily, the Americans appeared at the exact right moment, blew the evil villains away, and saved every soul there was. This is a fairly common theme throughout the book.
Meanwhile Dan (aka Cobra in his spy days) is requested back to the CIA headquarters where they are highly reluctant to tell him the background but expect the message from the spy, Cougar, decoded. The man was working on something. After decoding it, he is insulted and asked to leave but he stays back to investigate by himself.
Look at the flashback. He remembers going to kill Gaddafi. He “knows” that once he killed Gaddafi, the oppressed Lybians will be liberated and free and prosperous. And – wait for this – all other people in that region will be ‘inspired to rise against’ their own dictators and in turn become liberated. This story could have been written by Dick Cheny, could it not? It heaves to the neoliberal thought process so closely that it is funny. And of course, reading about it in the post Gaddafi world where we can see the ‘free and liberated’ Libya and in what state it is in, the words are comical, as in a satire. As you expected, the mission is called off just when he had the Colonel in his crosshairs. No reason given. (‘We will never know’ is the reason given)
When he realizes that there is a mole in CIA, he hides the true meaning of what Cougar told him and goes off to Afghanistan to rescue Zalmay. He is accosted by a decoy and after taking care of him, runs with Zalmay when he is pursued by a whole crowd and jumps into the lion’s den. He saves himself and Zalmay but is pursued by bullets which kill the lioness.
Crazy stuff but the author is no Lee Childs, and you do not feel the thrill of a Jack Reacher story.
Gets better. He warns his wife and daughter Alex to get out and they do, escaping ‘fake FBI’ by the skin of their teeth.
Meanwhile Zalmay himself is killed by Natasha and her team of assassins, but hands over the incriminating chip with photos, which prove that a major corporation was dealing with terrorists. He escapes.
He then goes to warn Plante that there is a mole in CIA and finds him dead – through a sniper bullet. Dan finds himself trapped in the house with a sniper taking aim at him next. There is a great scene of how he finds that the sniper is using a thermal signature to hunt him and how he thwarts the attack. He manages to escape.
He goes to his wife and daughter Alex in the hideout but Alex gets upset knowing the truth about him and walks away. She foolishly calls her boyfriend, who is under CIA surveillance and brings an assassin to their tail and is further shocked when her father (whom she still sees as an auto parts dealer) outwits and kills the person. He suddenly comes face to face with Cougar who takes him and fills him in on the background. How the corporation was aided by (possibly xxxx) but aided by someone high up. They both now plan to move Dan’s family to a safe place and go after the mole, knowing that it is the only way they all will be safe again.
He catches xxx and Senator Nickerson talking (with Cougar on the watch outside but gets captured by T, the girl with whom he has sex earlier to get her to reveal secrets). She does not believe when he says that he, Cobra, killed her brother because he was about to betray her, his own sister, to the Russians.
The past story of his training, picked up from Marine and extensive training and Powers, the supervisor underestimating him and then giving him credit, all are told well.
Nickerson himself comes to see Cobra. He offers Cobra a chance to work with him which Cobra angrily declines. Nickerson asks T to kill him as he knows trying to extract information from him is a waste of time. Cougar finds and rescues him and they run away.
The story gets more and more polished as you read along and finally, you are fully immersed in the story and agree that it is a very good book, and entertaining writing.
Finally how they thwart Natasha’s plans to kill Senator McKay (with a spectacular shot that smashes the glass she was about to drink from which would have killed her) and the subsequent demise of T and the recorded chip that she hands over to him at her dying moment is beautiful. Then comes Kline’s treachery when he arrested both Cobra and Cougar and took them to the HQ where they were certain that they would be quietly killed or disposed off. Kline is arrested by the director Boyle and sent away and they now are being debriefed. When Alex and Jenny are brought over, there is another major twist where Cobra learns the true identity of the traitor in chief, and then with desperate odds and a brilliant bit of deception from the cell phone belonging to the IT whiz kid Lowry, manages to overpower and kill him.
The story is as good as anything that major thriller authors would have written with delightful twists and turns and brilliant action. Yes, it is not a deep story but definitely a fun story to read.
This is the start of a series. I am sure it is going to be a fun series!
8/10
– – Krishna