Sting of the Wasp
Author: Jeff Rovin
Publisher: St Martin’s Paperbacks
ISBN: 9781250156914
In Jeff Rovin’s sixth entry in the thriller series created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik, US President Wyatt Midkiff disbands the Op-Center because its director, Chase Williams, and his staff failed to detect a major terrorist attack, resulting in the bombing of Manhattan’s floating Sea - the Air and Space Museum - aboard the USS Intrepid. The perpetrator is a Middle Eastern mastermind whose previous terrorism plot was foiled by the Op-Center.
Back in Washington, Williams gets a chance to redeem himself by heading the effort to track down the mastermind behind the attack. Commanding a new secret Black-ops Wartime Accelerated Strike Placement (Black Wasp), William’s team consists of Lt. Grace Lee of the US Army’s Special Operations Command, a martial arts master who specialises in deadly knife-work; Marine Lance Corporal Jaz Rivette, a sharpshooter; and Major Hamilton Breem, a criminologist and member of the JAG Corps.
The team’s objective is to find and bring the person or persons responsible for the recent atrocity to justice. They track the bombing to Ahmad Salehi, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. Ahmad also plans to unleash deadly chlorine trifluoride into the air that can cause horrible death to the victims in his effort to create a new Islamic State.
The Op-Center had earlier kept a close watch on Ahmad but for some reasons, he had been dropped from the radar.
When Ahmad realises that he’s now being targeted, he goes on the lam. The Black Wasp team, however, keeps a close trail on him and his cohorts, in an exciting and intriguing cat-and-mouse chase.
Ahmad manages to solicit the help of various terrorist organisations around the world as he goes on the run, but the members of the Black Wasp team catch up with the ruthless man in Aden, Yemen, and foil his plan of global destruction in a violent showdown.