QUICKSILVER

Disaster looms again in the Reeves-Stevens’s latest thriller, following the threat of asteroid impact and superviruses of 1998’s Icefire. This time out, it’s the utterly secure Pentagon that comes under threat as terrorist commandos take over the world’s most highly protected building on the event of the US welcoming new NATO partners from the former USSR. Not only the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Vice President are taken prisoners, but the cherry on top is that the terrorists have come in control of Quicksilver, a marvel of weaponry far superior to the atomic bomb in fearsomeness. Protecting the savaged US is the National Infrastructure Agency, whose ultrasecret activities ask for skills never before required from American agents. Leading NIA is Air Force Major General Milo Vanovich, aided ably by Army Major Margaret Sinclair. What is this Quicksilver they must protect at all costs? An electromagnetically invisible platform orbiting the planet at 200 miles, and directed by a satellite system controlled by a command facility in the Pentagon. But when the weapon is first tested at sea on the Shiloh with its 364 men aboard, it seems a failure—then a huge shimmering molten sheet lifts the Shiloh 20 feet out of the water before evaporating it into incandescent mist. If a weapon like that in the hands of terrorists grabs you, so should the rest of this hostage suspenser. (First printing of 75,000; author tour)