From the New York Times best-selling author of DEFCON One, Joe Weber, and R. J. Pineiro, the acclaimed author of Without Mercy, comes a new novel of global terrorism and international conflict. The unthinkable has happened. The United States is under attack. From the sea and the sky, the devastating attacks come, crippling the US military's ability to respond. Thousands have been killed and injured. For President Cord Macklin, this is the greatest challenge of his life. Greater than risking his life in the skies over Vietnam and greater than guiding the country through some of the most trying times in its history. But none has been more trying than this. Below the sea, a predator stalks the pride of America's Navy: its aircraft carriers. Deadly and silent, this killer seems able to elude all efforts to find it. In the skies over the Pacific, a belligerent China flexes its muscles, seeing an opportunity to exploit America's sudden vulnerability. As...

From the acclaimed thriller writer, Joe Weber, comes a chilling novel of the Cold War. The United States and Soviet Union are at the brink of war. Fearful of US plans for an anti-missile defense system that could defeat a USSR first strike, the Soviet General Secretary, the conservative successor to Gorbachev, conceives a plan to act first. Russian Bear bombers violate US airspace, leading to a response by American F-15s. A US Navy battle group is attacked in the North Atlantic. And in orbit, a Soviet hunter-killer satellite attacks an American space shuttle. As the world careens towards a nuclear conflict, only a lone CIA operative stands between peace and utter destruction. But can he act in time? Vividly portraying the real world of military hardware and combining it with page-turning action, DEFCON One is the definition of a classic thriller.From Publishers WeeklyA first novel, this gripping techno-thriller is set in the early 1990s, with the Soviet system falling apart and the U.S. about to take a commanding lead in the arms race, thanks to a combination of Stealth technology and SDI. The assassination of the Soviet premier brings to power a hard-liner with a daring plan: to force the U.S. to the brink of war--a state called Defense Readiness Condition Two, only one stage below maximum readiness, DefCon One--and then suddenly relax the pressure. If, as expected, the U.S. forces stand down, the U.S.S.R. will launch a surprise first strike. Weber, a former Marine fighter pilot, handles the military aspects of the developing confrontation convincingly, concentrating on air and naval operations. The novel's secret-agent aspect, a fast-paced escape-and-evasion trail through the heart of the Soviet Union, is only slightly less effective. The process by which responses to Russian provocation escalate to the limit is frighteningly credible, even in the age of glasnost. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalWhen aging Soviet hard-liner Zhilinkov attains power, he bullies his Politburo comrades into "testing" the speed of U.S. military reactions. The scenes shift rapidly from gripping air and naval battles to national strategy centers in Washington and Moscow as an equally determined President increases U.S. readiness posture towards Defense Condition One. Weber's forte is his ability to tell a fast-paced war story filled with accurate details of the latest weapons systems. The only characters who emerge as human beings are Dimitri Karpov, a Russian-speaking mole, and Steve Wickham, the senior CIA agent in Moscow, as they battle throughout the book to escape the clutches of the KGB and GRU with their critical information about Zhilinkov's intentions. In this first novel about the sunset of nuclear war, Weber chooses to ignore the roles Congress, the media, and the public would play in deciding U.S. responses. Recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/89.- Elsa Pendleton, Computer Sciences Corp., Ridgecrest, Cal.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.