by Jeff Rovin
Williams bit off the rest of what he wanted to say. Agreement was a diplomatic idea. Wrong was an ethical one. With Salehi, and now with Katinka, any course of action they might have chosen had legitimate moral weight.
I like it when we’re in agreement, but I learn a helluva lot more when we’re not, Williams thought as they made their way forward.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The Oval Office, Washington, D.C.
November 13, 6:50 P.M.
“Does anyone remember this line from my first inaugural address?” Midkiff asked the three men sitting with him at the conference table. “‘The mailed fist of power must always yield to the whisper of compassion’?”
Governor John Wright and Matt Berry nodded. Chase Williams was noncommittal. It was a rhetorical question, anyway.
The president regarded Williams, who sat across from him, beside Berry.
“Commander, your team performed brilliantly. I’m looking forward to meeting Major Breen, Lieutenant Lee, and Lance Corporal Rivette.”
“They are looking forward to meeting you both,” Williams said, looking from Midkiff to the tall, graying, square-jawed president-elect.
The team had flown home and were met by Berry, who took them directly to the Hay-Adams Hotel across Lafayette Park from the White House. Berry also took charge of the core sample, which was placed in a hazmat container by a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I felt it best to locate this nonmilitary,” Berry said. “Good thing we have an outgoing president who didn’t care about crushed toes.”
The team was surprisingly fresh. All had slept on the plane and did the same thing they had done after Yemen: debriefed one another. Not to corroborate or confirm matching stories but to air what they learned and how they felt. That was not something very many soldiers got to express in a relaxed, non-command environment.
Of them all, Grace was the most unsettled. She was not happy to have left Raeburn behind.
“I wanted to do Commander van Tonder the favor of putting him in a lock that caused unbearable pain—and keeping him that way for a ride across the ocean.”
“Would you have?” Breen asked.
“I’d have shot him in the mouth,” Rivette said.
“I don’t know,” Grace answered. “That commander—he was in just that kind of pain and it’ll never go away.”
“It shouldn’t,” Williams said. “Otherwise, you become a Raeburn instead of a Lieutenant Mabuza.”
That failed to assuage the woman, and Williams suspected that what was truly at the core of her unhappiness was the same thing that had bothered him: it took someone else to do what they were used to achieving themselves.
Hopefully, meeting President Midkiff and Governor Wright would help to mollify those feelings. It would also be the first time the team was together other than being on a mission. That would be validating, too. If they had not ultimately succeeded here, as in Yemen, there were likely to be questions about the Black Wasp program.
“Governor Wright, I am pleased that you will have this remarkable unit at your disposal,” the president went on. “And more like it, if you can persuade the generals that they need to field more tactical and experiential skill and less redundant hardware.”
“We will need more like it,” Wright said—with great certainty.
“Why do you say that, sir?” Williams asked.
The president-elect had been sitting with his legs crossed. He leaned forward now, reminding Williams of the way he had looked directly into cameras with a gaze that commanded respect.
“Because your team just showed the Chinese, the Russians, and everyone else who was watching what you can do,” Wright said. “That can hardly go unnoticed at the highest levels—or unanswered. I hope, Mr. Berry, that when your tenure here is through you will consider serving as intermediary of such a program.”
“I’m honored,” Berry replied.
The president rose. “I’m sure, Commander Williams, your teammates are getting restless in the anteroom. Why don’t you bring them in?”
“With great pleasure, sir,” Williams replied.
And it was.
And the old military lion felt a refreshing spring in his walk as he went to the doors of the Oval Office with two presidents and Matt Berry rising to their feet behind him.
TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER NOVELS
Op-Center
Mirror Image
Games of State
Acts of War
Balance of Power
State of Siege
Divide and Conquer
Line of Control
Mission of Honor
Sea of Fire
Call to Treason
War of Eagles
Out of the Ashes
Into the Fire
Scorched Earth
Dark Zone
For Honor
Sting of the Wasp
ALSO BY JEFF ROVIN
The Hindenburg Disaster
The Transgalactic Guide to Solar System M-17
The Madjan
Dagger
Starik (with Sander Diamond)
Cat Angels
Vespers
Stealth War
Fatalis
Dead Rising
Tempest Down
Rogue Angel
Conversations with the Devil
Zero-G (with William Shatner)
A Vision of Fire (with Gillian Anderson)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEFF ROVIN is the author of more than 150 books, fiction and nonfiction, both under his own name, under various pseudonyms, or as a ghostwriter, including numerous New York Times bestsellers and over a dozen of the original Tom Clancy’s Op-Center novels. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Also by Jeff Rovin
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
First published in the United States b
y St. Martin’s Griffin, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group
TOM CLANCY’S OP-CENTER: GOD OF WAR. Copyright © 2020 by Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and S&R Literary, Inc. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Publishing Group, New York, NY 10271.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Ervin Serrano
Cover photographs: symbol © PE3K/Shutterstock.com; clouds © Lemanna/Shutterstock.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rovin, Jeff, author.|Clancy, Tom, 1947–2013, creator.|Pieczenik, Steve R., creator.
Title: Tom Clancy’s Op-Center. God of war / created by Tom Clancy and Steve
Pieczenik; written by Jeff Rovin.
Description: First edition.|New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2020.|Series: Tom Clancy’s Op-Center; 19
Identifiers: LCCN 2019058394|ISBN 9781250209252 (trade paperback)|ISBN 9781250209269 (ebook)
Subjects: GSAFD: Adventure fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3568.O8894 T67 2020|DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058394
eISBN 9781250209269
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First Edition: 2020