Red Shark

by Peter Sasgen

• ISBN13: 9780743483605
• ISBN10: 074348360X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-25
• Publisher: Pocket

Summary

A United Nations-brokered détente between North and South Korea is about to make history when two powerful bombs rock Midtown Manhattan, killing the warring nations' representatives as well as innocent bystanders. A renegade North Korean general is b

Excerpts

Chapter 1Virginia Beach, Virginia Jake Scott lay in the dark, his mind racing, refusing to shut off, remembering, until a pale dawn crept into the room and brought him back to the present.Why torture himself? His breakup with Tracy hadn't been one of his finer moments. It was over and there was nothing he could do about it, but God, he wanted to see her again. He pictured her standing in the bedroom of their apartment with her head thrown back, striking a vampish pose. She had on a black thong, black high-heeled slides, jewelry, and nothing else. Her black hair, cut short, hugged her head like a shiny helmet.Scott's eyes had gone to the ugly greenish-yellow bruises on her wrists, which she had tried to hide under a riot of jangling bracelets. But she couldn't hide the angry red bite mark on her left breast below the nipple.Who gave you that? he had asked. Rick? No, you did, she'd snapped. Bullshit. It was Rick, wasn't it? He's a toy, that's all, she had said. He understands me, knows what I like. Yeah and getting knocked around isn't it. What did he do, tie you to the bed? Is that why your wrists are bruised? She'd cursed him and slammed the bedroom door in his face. Driven by the agony of sexual jealousy, Scott succumbed to the darkest fringes of his imagination and saw the toy plunging between Tracy's slim, white thighs.He saw himself with Tracy. Her body arched against his as he'd sucked her swollen left nipple. He remembered that she had grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his mouth from her breast. "I said, stop! It can't take any more. Look what you've done to it.""Sorry."She had bared her teeth. "No, you're not."A moment later he'd been in her, deep, then convulsing, breath exploding into her scented hair, whispering in her ear the things she'd liked to hear him say when he'd come.It was a scene that had been repeated countless times. After their violent lovemaking, she'd hurled accusations at him. Then taunts. It was Tracy who'd broken the fragile bond between them on the eve of his departure. With it broken, she could do whatever she pleased while he was away and not feel guilty.He swung out of bed and went to the window. A motorcycle ripping at speed up Shore Drive made the glazing rattle. He shivered. Too many days at sea had forced him and Tracy apart. Too many days spent driving submarines into dangerous waters where one mistake could spell disaster for him and his crew: In the Yellow Sea the North Koreans and a botched SEAL insertion; in the Baltic a battle with Chechen terrorists who had stolen a Russian sub and planned to blow up its nuclear reactor in St. Petersburg.The phone rang. He saw the time -- not yet 6:00 A.M. -- and hesitated. Then he snatched the phone off the nightstand. "Scott."It was a familiar voice, that of the chief of staff to Vice Admiral Carter Ellsworth, who was the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet submarine boss -- ComSubLant -- in Norfolk, Virginia. "Commander Scott, hold for Admiral Ellsworth."Scott braced for trouble.Ellsworth came on the line. "Got your TV on, Scott?""No, Admiral, I don't usually have it on while I'm sleeping.""Well, turn it on to CNN, then get back to me.""What's going on?...""You ready to travel, Scott?""Travel, sir? Where to?""I think General Radford will want to see you."Scott groaned inwardly. "I'm on leave, Admiral; the Tampa's on stand-down.""CNN. Get back to me." Ellsworth rang off.Scott looked at the dead receiver in his hand as if it smelled bad.Major General Karl Radford, USAF (ret.), head of the Strategic Reconnaissance Office -- the SRO. Scott knew that a summons from Radford always spelled trouble.He aimed a wand at the Sony, and a CNN anchorman in Atlanta appeared over a crawler at the bottom of the screen announcing a special report.The anchorman said, "To repeat, the North Korean Central News Agency, in response to yesterday morning's bombings i