Dark Thirty — John Reed

Dark Forest

Synopsis

John Reed

CIA headquarters has been attacked. An 18-wheeler loaded with radioactive waste has slammed through the gates and exploded, killing hundreds. Langley is in ruins, American Intelligence in chaos. When her boss is killed in the blast, CIA officer, JESSICA GREEN, jumps into the investigation. She uncovers a startling fact: A deep-cover agent named TOM HATCHER knew the attack was coming.
Problem: He deserted the Agency in Afghanistan and took his hunter-killer team, code-named DARK FOREST, with him. There's a million-dollar bounty on his head.
Green tracks Hatcher to Pakistan, finally convinces him to join forces. The man responsible for the Langley bombing, Hatcher says, is a Saudi billionaire called MALIK. The attack on CIA is only phase one of Malik's plan to plunge the world into global war.
Malik's trail leads Hatcher to the other side of the world, a game reserve outside Vladivostok, Russia -- ten miles from the North Korean border.
Hatcher and his Dark Thirty team move into position. Hatcher will operate under non-official cover at the World Tiger Foundation, a group dedicated to preserving the last wild habitat of the Siberian tiger. The head of the organization, KRIS LAWRENCE, wants no part of Hatcher. His spy games will only serve to disturb her endangered tigers. Still, there is a spark when they meet.
Satellite images reveal a mysterious missile installation in North Korea, near the Russian border. Hatcher discovers Malik's camp, less than twenty miles away. What is he up to? CIA analysts are certain North Korea would never launch a nuclear strike against the U.S. It would be virtual suicide. But what would happen, Hatcher wonders, if they were forced to launch their missile? An attack would plunge the world into war. It's insane, but Hatcher is convinced this is exactly what Malik intends to do, by forcing a terrified North Korean general to throw the switch.
Launch day. Malik heads for the missile site in North Korea. Dark Thirty has been ambushed, three men shot to death. One half-eaten by a tiger. Hatcher must go alone to stop Malik. Kris tries to stop him. A huge male tiger, which locals call the ‘ghost cat,' has been spotted in the area. He's developed a taste for humans.
Deep in the forest, Malik ambushes the CIA man and leaves him tied to a tree -- tiger bait. The Siberian appears, gliding soundlessly toward Hatcher.
It will take ever ounce of Hatcher's strength, and all his skill, to break free, follow Malik across the North Korean border and stop the launch. He succeeds and the missile is destroyed in a fiery explosion. But Malik has escaped the blast and disappeared. Hatcher tracks him through the forest and finally brings him down.
The tiger appears. He smells blood.
“Malik is mine,” Hatcher says.
After a tense confrontation, the ghost cat, with a snarl of defiance, fades into the forest.