T
The Bestselling Novels of
TOM CLANCY
THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON
p A clash of world powers. President Jack Ryan's trial I by fire.
', "HEART-STOPPING ACTION . . . CLANCY STILL REIGNS."
-The Washington Post
RAINBOW SIX
John Clark is used to doing the ClA's dirty work. Now he's taking on the world....
"ACTION-PACKED."
-The New York Times Book Review
EXECUTIVE ORDERS
The most devastating terrorist act in history leaves Jack Ryan as President of the United States....
'UNDOUBTEDLY CLANCY'S BEST YET."
-The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DEBT OF HONOR
It begins with the murder of an American woman in the back streets of Tokyo. It ends in war....
"A SHOCKER CLIMAX SO PLAUSIBLE YOU'LL WONDER WHY IT HASN'T YET HAPPENED."
-Entertainment Weekly
continued...
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
The smash bestseller that launched Clancy's career-the incredible search for a Soviet defector and the nuclear submarine he commands...
"BREATHLESSLY EXCITING."
-The Washington Post
RED STORM RISING
The ultimate scenario for World War III-the final battle for global control...
"THE ULTIMATE WAR GAME ... BRILLIANT."
-Newsweek
PATRIOT GAMES
CIA analyst Jack Ryan stops an assassination-and incurs the wrath of Irish terrorists....
"A HIGH PITCH OF EXCITEMENT."
-The Wall Street Journal
THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN
The superpowers race for the ultimate Star Wars missile defense system....
"CARDINAL EXCITES, ILLUMINATES ... A REAL PAGE-TURNER."
-Los Angeles Daily News
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
jfThe killing of three U.S. officials in Colombia ignites the |American government's explosive, and top secret, ^response....
i"A CRACKLING GOOD YARN."
-The Washington Post
THE SUM OF ALL FEARS
The disappearance of an Israeli nuclear weapon threatens the balance of power in the Middle East- and around the world....
"CLANCY AT HIS BEST ... NOT TO BE MISSED."
-The Dallas Morning News
WITHOUT REMORSE
The Clancy epic fans have been waiting for. His code name is Mr. Clark. And his work for the CIA is brilliant, cold-blooded, and efficient... but who is he really?
"HIGHLY ENTERTAINING.'
-The Wall Street Journal
continued.
And don't miss Tom Ctancy9*
fascinating nonfiction
ivories ...
SPECIAL FORCES
A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces
"CLANCY IS A NATURAL."
-USA Today
CARRIER
A Guided Tour of an Aircraft Carrier
"CLANCY IS A MASTER OF HARDWARE."
-The Washington Post
AIRBORNE
A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force
"NOBODY DOES IT BETTER."
-The Dallas Morning News
SUBMARINE
A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship
'TAKES READERS DEEPER THAN THEY'VE EVER GONE INSIDE A NUCLEAR SUBMARINE."
-Kirkus Reviews
ARMORED CAV
A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment
"TOM CLANCY IS THE BEST THERE IS."
-San Francisco Chronicle
FIGHTER WING
A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing
"CLANCY'S WRITING IS SO STRONG THAT READERS FEEL THEY ARE THERE."
-Boston Sunday Herald
MARINE
A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit
"NO ONE CAN EQUAL HIS TALENT."
-Houston Chronicle
AT BOOKSTORES EVERYWHERE!
Novels by Tom Clancy
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER RED STORM RISING
PATRIOT GAMES
THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
THE SUM OF ALL FEARS
WITHOUT REMORSE
DEBT OF HONOR EXECUTIVE ORDERS
RAINBOW SIX THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON
SSN: STRATEGIES OF SUBMARINE WARFARE
Created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik
tom clancy's op-center
tom clancy's op-center: mirror image
tom clancy's op-center: games of state
tom clancy's op-center: acts of war tom clancy's op-center: balance of power
tom clancy's op-center: state of siege
tom clancy's op-center: divide and conquer
tom clancy's op-center: line of control
tom clancy's net force tom clancy's net force: hidden agendas
tom clancy's net force: night moves tom clancy's net force: breaking point tom clancy's net force: point of impact
tom clancy's net force: cybernation
Created by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg
tom clancy's power plays: poutika
tom clancy's power plays: ruthless.com
tom clancy's power plays: shadow watch
tom clancy's power plays: bio-strike
Nonfiction written with John Gresham
submarine: a guided tour inside a nuclear warship
armored cav: a guided tour of an armored cavalry regiment
fighter wing: a guided tour of an air force combat wing
marine: a guided tour of a marine expeditionary unit
airborne: a guided tour of an airborne task force
carrier: a guided tour of an aircraft carrier special forces: a guided tour of u.s. army special forces
INTO THE STORM: A STUDY IN COMMAND (written with General Fred Frank) EVERY MAN A TIGER (written with General Charles Homer)
Tom CLANCYS
NET FORCE
CYBERNATION
Created by
Tom CLancy and Steve Pieczentk written by Steve Perry
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK
FICTION
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either
are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and
any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business
establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
TOM CLANCY'S NET FORCE: CYBERNATION
A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with Netco Partners
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley edition / November 2001
All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2001 by Netco Partners.
NET FORCE* is a registered trademark of Netco Partners.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be
reproduced in any form without permission.
For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
For more information on Steve Pieczenik, please visit www.stevepieczenik.com.
Visit our website at www.penguinputnam.com
ISBN: 0-425-18267-3
BERKLEY*
Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY and the "B" design
are trademarks belonging to Penguin Putnam Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 987654321
"The issue before us is one of no ordinary character. We are not engaged in a conflict for conquest, or for aggrandizement, or for the settlement of a point of international law. The question for you to decide is, Will you be slaves or will you be independent?"
-President Jefferson Davis Confederate States of America Jackson, Mississippi December 26, 1862
PART ONE
The Lime* Are Down
PROLOGUE
Friday, December 23, 2012-7:03 AM. Scranton, Pennsylvania
Cameron Barnes jabbed one finger at the phone's keyboard, hitting the "O" button over and over. "Dammit, what the hell's wrong! C'mon, C'mon-!" From the kitchen, Victoria said, "What?" "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the stupid phone!"
Victoria stuck her head through the doorway. "Excuse me?"
"The phone, the phone is out of order. No dial tone, nothing."
"Use your digital." "I already tried that. Same thing." "Maybe your battery is-" "No, the battery is not dead, I checked it!" "Well, don't take my head off! It's not my fault!" "I'm sorry. But, look, I have to make this call-if the customer doesn't hear from us by seven-thirty, we're screwed. I'm gonna lose my commission!"
4 NET FORCE
"Use my cell."
He started to ask, but she beat him to it. "In my purse."
Cam found her purse, pulled the little folding phone out, opened it. He tried voxax first, telling it the name to call, but that didn't work. Neither did the buttons.
He was going to lose his commission. Eight hundred bucks. Shit!
Austin, Texas
Rocko Jackson stared at his computer screen and cursed. "Son of a bitch! Don't you do this to me now!"
In the cubicle next to his, Tim Bonifazio stood and peeped over the short divider.
" 'S'up, white boy?"
"The damned system must be locked up again. I can't get it to access the net."
"Hold on a second, lemme check. It's probably just your station, you know how the mainframe hates you."
Tim disappeared from sight After a second, Rocko heard, "Uh-oh!"
"Aha, so the mainframe hates you, too, don't it?"
"No, man, it hates everybody. My laptop and wireless modem ain't working, neither."
"So what are you saying, the net is down?" He laughed.
"That's what it looks like from here."
"I don't even want to hear that."
Silicon Valley, California
Rachel Todd arrived at the conference room at the same time as Dal Ellner and Narin Brown. Rachel said, "What is going on, guys?"
CYBERNATION 5
Both Dal and Narin shook their heads. "Got me," Narin said. "All I know is nobody can get on the web. Not with hardwired, laptops, digital phones, nothing. Even old man Johns's virgil isn't working. It's like the net just... died, or something."
"Can't be," Dal said.
"Maybe not, but I know of at least fifteen major ISPs- from local to New York to London to Hong Kong-that are flat out inaccessible."
"This is bad," Rachel said.
"Bad? It's catastrophic! Every hour we're off-line costs us half a million bucks! In a couple of days, we'll be in the toilet!"
"Us and everybody for as far as the eye can see," Narin said.
"That doesn't make me feel any better."
Cheyenne Mountain, Wyoming
"Lieutenant, you want to tell me what the hell is going on?"
"Unknown, General Harmon, sir. All network operations are snafued."
"You mean we are deaf and blind here?"
"No, sir, we have landlines that still work, we can call in launch codes manually if we have to."
"And how do we open the silo doors?"
"Hand cranks, sir."
"Not acceptable, Lieutenant. I want the situation rectified."
"Sir, according to landline reports, the problem is nationwide -we can't fix it from here."
"God dammit!"
"Yes, sir."
6 NET FORCE Dry Wells, North Dakota
Chief of Police Steve Gotten stared through his window at the icy morning outside. The new power grid had just up and shut down. With the temperature at minus fourteen and the windchill factor pushing minus fifty, the lights, electric heat, and all phone and net service simply stopped.
The citizens of North Dakota knew how to deal with cold, and usually had enough wood stockpiled for such emergencies. The chief himself had six split cords under a tarp next to his garage, but there were people old enough so that splitting and then hauling in firewood would be a hard chore. Four men had already had fatal heart attacks; two others injured themselves badly enough to require hospitalization. Chief Gotten knew there would be another group unable to heat their homes who were likely to die from hypothermia.
The chief sighed. It was turning out to be an all around, in the toilet, crappy morning here, oh, yeah.
On the Gambling Ship Bon Chance Somewhere in the Caribbean
Alone in his cabin, Jackson Keller slipped the headset up, pulled the earplugs loose, shucked his haptic gloves, and grinned at the holoproj's test pattern. "Way to go, team," he said. "Let's see how they like thatl"
They weren't gonna like it at all. Jay Gridley especially wasn't gonna like it.
He laughed. Ah, this was going to be so much fun!
1
Net Force HQ Quantico, Virginia
Alex Michaels, Commander of Net Force, swore softly at the empty computer screen on his desk. He picked up his phone and said, "Jay Gridley."
The voxax circuit made the connection, but internal corns were pictureless. The voice on the other end said, "What? I'm kind of busy here!"
"Jay. What the hell is going on?"
"Oops. I didn't check the ID sig, sorry, boss. We got problems."
"Really? You think so?"
"I guess you wouldn't be calling if you didn't already know that."
"What's up?"
"I don't know. Our main server is off-line, and all wireless external phone lines are bollixed. My virgil's emergency circuit says there are outages like this everywhere, all over the country."
"Great."
8 NET FORCE
"I'm trying to run it down, boss."
"Don't let me keep you. Call me back when you get something."
Michaels put down the phone. Well, wasn't this just peachy? A few minutes ago, he'd been patting himself on the back, telling himself how great things were going. Business had been slow, Net Force had been on top of computer crime like never before, even the director had called to congratulate him on how good a job they'd been doing. He should have known better than to feel good about this. It was as if while God was having his morning coffee, Michaels had strolled by, full of hubris and proud of himself, and bumped God's elbow, sloshing hot coffee into His divine lap.
Oops.
Here, son, let me show you what goeth before a fall...
He should have known.
He was paying for it now. Because he knew that whatever the problem was with the net and phones, it was going to be Net Force's responsibility. No question about it.
"Sir?" His secretary.
"Yes?"
"The director is on the intercom. Line one."
Michaels nodded. Of course she was. He sighed and reached for the phone.
Helsinki, Finland
Jasmine Chance walked down the hall toward the office Roberto had cleared of furniture and made into a workout space. Music drifted out of Roberto's makeshift gym, drums and the singsong twang of berimbau, an instrument that looked vaguely like an archery bow strung with a metal wire, and with a gourd attached to one end. Roberto had explai
ned the workings of this device in much greater
CYBERNATION 9
detail than Chance had ever wanted to know. The instrument was played by hitting the wire with a little stick while rattling a gourd filled with pebbles in the same hand, and the musician could alternate between two notes by touching the wire with a coin or not. Santos liked to have his players use a Krugerrand, gold giving the best tone, so he said. The simple rhythms produced were part and parcel of the acrobatic African/South American martial art of Capoeira that Roberta Santos-a black, Brazilian master of the dance who bore the title of Capoeirista Mestre-practiced for hours every day.
Chance stepped into the doorway just as Roberto leaped into the air and turned a back somersault, landed neatly on the balls of his feet, then dropped into a spraddle-legged posture, sweeping one foot along the floor in a broad half- circle. Only the palm sides of the hands and soles of the feet were ever supposed to touch the ground, he had told her, that was part of O Jdgo, The Game. Capoeira was a fighting system developed by slaves, and while one school of history had it that it had been disguised as a dance so as to fool the white masters, Roberto had been quick to point out that such thinking was simplistic.
Most of what she knew of Capoeira she had learned from Roberto in bed, between bouts of an art at which she was an adept. Roberto was barely thirty years old. He was a decade younger than she was. He was handsome, had great stamina, and his body seemed chiseled from hard cocobolo wood. There was no fat on him at all. He had been a diamond in the rough when they had met. She had polished him and taught him how to be a skilled lover over the year of their association. He was corning along nicely.
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