The Cold War is over. And chaos is setting in. The new president of Russia is trying to create a democratic regime. But there are strong elements within the country that are trying to stop him: the ruthless Russian mafia, the right-wing nationalists, and those nefarious forces that will do whatever it takes to return Russia to the days of the Czar.

Op-Center, the newly-founded but highly successful crisis management team, begins a race against the clock and against the hardliners. Their task is made even more difficult by the discovery of a Russian counterpart... but this one's controlled by those same repressive hardliners and represents everything Op-Center stands for. Two rival Op-Centers, virtual mirror images of each other. But if this mirror cracks, it'll be more than seven years of bad luck....


From School Library Journal
YA?A terrorist bomb explodes at a celebration outside the Palace in Seoul, South Korea, with hundreds of casualties. Was it planted by angry North Koreans? Anti-reunification South Koreans? Or one group posing as the other to shift blame? Will the U.S. go in to help an ally? Speedy and efficient answers must be provided through a new U.S. intelligence agency under the direction of Paul Hood. Shorter than many other Clancy novels, Op-Center is action-packed and less violent than Without Remorse (Putnam, 1993). Brief chapters relate each event in the 41 hours during the international crisis and shift quickly to many locales. Readers must remember under what circumstances they last saw each person and must be able to keep the Korean names straight. The author is a master at providing a past and a personality for the main characters in a few words. The others come alive through their actions. The intricate climax shows that neither side is all good or all bad: cooperation is needed to keep peace. Sure to be popular, especially when the television movie airs.?Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VACopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The Boston Globe
Clancy knows how to build a political thriller.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Syrian terrorists have attacked a dam inside the borders of Turkey, threatening the water supply of their own homeland. It is not insanity, but the first step in a deceptively simple plan to force all-out war in the Middle East. This strategy will draw elite troops out of the capital of Damascus, leaving the Syrian president unprotected — and an easy target for assassination.

What the terrorists don't know is that a new Regional Op-Center is now online in Greece. A mobile version of the permanent crisis management facility, the ROC is a cutting-edge surveillance and information mecca. And its team can see exactly what the Syrian rebels are trying to do.

The terrorists are more resourceful than anyone thinks. They also have ways of obtaining classified information. And the Regional Op-Center — the United States' newest weapon — is not a prize to be passed up ...

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly