Fire Strike (with Mike Maden)

G. P. Putnam’s Sons Publishers Since 1838 An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC penguinrandomhouse.com Copyright © 2023 by Sandecker RLLLP Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Maden, Mike, author. Title: Clive Cussler fire strike / Mike Maden. Description: New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [2023] | Series: A Novel of The Oregon Files; [17] Identifiers: LCCN 2023012546 (print) | LCCN 2023012547 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593543931 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593543948 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Thrillers (Fiction) | Novels. Classification: LCC PS3613.A284327 C56 2023 (print) | LCC PS3613.A284327 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23/eng/20230316 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023012546 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023012547 Cover design: Eric Fuentecilla Cover images: (missile render) Eric Fuentecilla; (aircraft carrier) SugaBom86 / Shutterstock; (sky) Aastels / Shutterstock Book design by Katy Riegel, adapted for ebook by Maggie Hunt 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, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. pid_prh_6.0_143786116_c0_r0 Contents Cover Cast of Characters Epigraph Prologue Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 About the Authors Titles by Clive Cussler _143786116_ Cast of Characters THE CORPORATION Juan Cabrillo—Chairman of the Corporation and captain of the Oregon. Max Hanley—President of the Corporation, Juan’s second-in-command, and the Oregon’s chief engineer. U.S. Navy and Vietnam swift boat veteran. Linda Ross—Vice President, Operations. Retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer. Eddie Seng—Director, Shore Operations. Former CIA agent. Franklin “Linc” Lincoln—Operations. Former U.S. Navy SEAL sniper. Marion MacDougal “MacD” Lawless—Operations. Former U.S. Army Ranger. Raven Malloy—Operations. Former U.S. Army Military Police investigator. Eric Stone—Chief helmsman on the Oregon. Former U.S. Navy officer, weapons research and development. Dr. Mark “Murph” Murphy—Chief weapons officer on the Oregon. Former civilian weapons designer. Russ Kefauver—Intelligence analyst. Former CIA forensic accountant. Dr. Eric Littleton—Director of the Oregon’s biophysical laboratory. Mike Lavin—Chief armorer on the Oregon. Retired U.S. Army armament/fire control maintenance supervisor. Bill McDonald—Senior armorer on the Oregon. Former CIA paramilitary operator. George “Gomez” Adams—Helicopter pilot and chief aerial drone operator on the Oregon. U.S. Army veteran. Hali Kasim—Chief communications officer on the Oregon. Dr. Julia Huxley—Chief medical officer on the Oregon. U.S. Navy veteran. Amy Forrester—Physician’s assistant on the Oregon. Former Navy combat medic. Kevin Nixon—Chief of the Oregon’s Magic Shop. Maurice—Chief steward on the Oregon. British Royal Navy veteran. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT Langston Overholt IV—The Corporation’s CIA liaison. Captain Kim Dudash—Commanding officer, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Robin Stansberry—U.S. senator. SAUDI ARABIA Abdullah bin Abdulaziz—Crown Prince. Muqrin bin Khalid—Deputy crown prince and Royal Saudi “History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods.” —Yuval Noah Harari Prologue Borneo, 1963 A drenching rain in the moonless night was perfect cover for the three Special Boat Section operatives. The “wet cousins” of the better-known Special Air Service, the SBS was a commando unit of the Royal Marines specializing in coastal insertions—hence the mission tonight running a Zodiac deep upriver. A stubborn British national named Rawlinson desperately needed an emergency exfil from his family’s rubber plantation. The communist Indonesian insurgents raiding across the region were hell-bent on killing all foreigners and seizing their properties. A Dutch family just eight kilometers away had been decimated by the bandy-legged Marxists the night before and Rawlinson and his wife suddenly realized they were next on their list. Private Desmond “Wraith” Vickers killed the Zodiac’s big outboard Evinrude and the three men paddled the last five hundred meters in practiced synchronicity. They were grateful for the splattering downpour that soaked their kits but silenced their efforts. All three men scanned the dim shoreline for any sign of movement—of rebels, certainly, but also for Bornean crocodiles, thick as flies in this part of the country. So far, lady luck had paddled along with them. The lieutenant gestured with his free hand and the men angled the rubber-hulled boat toward the shore. They slipped noiselessly out of the Zodiac and dragged it into