TOM CLANCY FIRING POINT

“Alive, not dead.” That is young Jack’s task in South Korea— to bring a bad guy back for interrogation—but he knows there’s “a long, nasty road of hurt” between life and death. Later, he’s in a Barcelona restaurant sipping vermut when he unexpectedly meets an old flame. They chat, and he leaves just before an explosion kills everyone inside. Rushing back—because that’s what Ryans do—he hears his dying friend whisper “Sammler.” Enraged, he will stop at nothing to find her killer. Later on, a woman from Spain’s security service also dies in Jack’s presence. No wonder he’s single; the guy’s a walking danger zone. In typical Clancy style, the action spans four continents and the Pacific Ocean, where a container ship carrying illegal cargo is sunk. In “a new kind of piracy,” drones disguised as tiger sharks sink enough ships to warrant the attention of President Ryan, whom one character calls “sharp as a tack, and blunt as a hammer.” That’s much better than what a bad guy calls his son: “this Ryan asshole.” Father and son go to great lengths to keep their relationship from being known, yet it’s still curious that no one seems to noodle on the idea they might look alike for a reason. A geek named Gavin, a “one-man wrecking machine when it came to hacking,” pointlessly reminds Jack that he’s “not authorized to do anything.” If Jack follows that advice, half the story disappears. The ultimate stakes are much higher than sunken ships: The theft of trillions of dollars may cause an “economic apocalypse,” and what’s a Clancy thriller without a ticking clock (Jack’s watch, really) and a threat of World War III? Fast action and dead bodies abound in this enjoyable bit of hero worship.

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