Rainbow Six (novel)

CIA operative John Clark forms a secret multi-national counter-terrorist unit known as Rainbow. Based in Hereford, United Kingdom, the unit consists of two operational squads composed of elite soldiers from NATO countries, and is supplemented by intelligence and technological experts from MI6, Mossad, and FBI. Clark is the commanding officer, son-in-law Domingo Chavez leads one of the two squads, and the second in command is Special Air Service (SAS) officer Alistair Stanley.

The first deployment of Rainbow involves Chavez's squad in the rescue of hostages during a botched bank robbery in Bern, Switzerland. Several weeks later, they are deployed to Austria, where a group of left-wing German terrorists have taken over the schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman in order to obtain imaginary "special access codes" to the international trading markets. Their third deployment involves a hostage situation in an amusement park in Spain, where a group of French terrorists take a group of children hostage and demand that various prisoners, including Carlos the Jackal, be released.

Clark and his colleagues become suspicious about the sudden spate of terrorist attacks. Unbeknownst to them, the first two attacks are part of a master plan to wipe out nearly all of the human race, called "the Project". Dr. John Brightling, a staunch environmentalist who heads a biotechnology firm called the Horizon Corporation, ordered the attacks through ex-KGB officer Dimitri Popov in order to raise awareness of terrorism, which then helps former FBI agent and co-conspirator Bill Henriksen's security firm land a key contract during the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. From within the Olympics security apparatus, Henriksen plans to launch a sophisticated bioweapon attack using nanocapsules containing the Shiva virus, a strengthened form of the Ebola virus that had been used by Iran in its biological attack on the U.S. (in Executive Orders). The resulting epidemic would kill millions, but then Brightling's company would distribute a "vaccine" that actually contains a slow-acting version of the virus itself, which would kill or overwhelm nearly all of the rest of the world's population. The "chosen few", having been provided with the real vaccine, would then inherit the emptied world, justifying to themselves mass murder as "saving the world" from humanity.

Popov, unaware of the Project, discovers the existence of Rainbow through review of the responses to his terrorist attacks, and brings it to Brightling's attention. He is later tasked by Brightling and Henriksen with orchestrating an attack on Rainbow itself in order to prevent them from being deployed to the Sydney Olympics. He persuades breakaway members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army to take over a hospital near Rainbow's base and take Clark and Chavez's wives (who work there) hostage. While two Rainbow troopers are killed and several others wounded in an ambush, Rainbow teams manage to retake the building without civilian casualties and capture some of the terrorists. Interrogation reveals Popov's involvement, causing Brightling to bring the Russian to Horizon's secret main base in Kansas. Upon learning about the Project, an appalled Popov escapes and tells all he knows to Clark. Meanwhile, Chavez and some of his men, who were deployed at the Olympics to oversee venue security, thwart the attack.

Their plans in shambles, Brightling and key co-conspirators escape to another, smaller Horizon base deep in the Brazilian rain forest. Clark leads Rainbow there. They defeat the eco-terrorists' defences and destroy their facility and supplies. Knowing that there is not enough evidence to convict them, Clark has the survivors stripped naked and left to fend for themselves in the jungle, taunting them to "reconnect with nature." Chavez remarks that even he would not be able to survive there very long.

Rainbow Six explores the issue of radical environmentalism. According to Marc Cerasini's essay on the novel, the philosophy of the antagonists are considered as an extreme form of naturalism, based on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's view that society's functions corrupt mankind and that "a natural or primitive state is actually morally superior to civilization". The novel shares elements found in James Bond movies: a biological weapon being used to end the human race, mad scientists plotting world domination, and high-tech secret bases hidden from civilization. However, Clancy makes the plot realistic by basing the motivations of the eco-terrorists on real-life radical environmentalists.[2]

The book received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weekly praised the novel's "sprawling, Bondesque plot" as well as its action scenes that are "vivid and cinematic — and notably lacking in the clichés and B-movie tone of his dialogue". Publishers Weekly also hailed the scenes as "immensely suspenseful, breathtaking combos of expertly detailed combat and primal emotion".[3]

On the other hand, criticism was focused on flat characters and the implausibility of the plot. A review from Orlando Sentinel pointed out: "Clancy may have crossed the line into the realm of the unbelievable...I suspect even some of his most rabid fans will shake their heads at parts of this novel."[4] Entertainment Weekly also noted that "some of [Clancy's] secondary characters have a flat, dime-novel feel".[5] Canadian environmentalist Paul Watson condemned the book as "a vicious defamation of the Environmentalist Movement, embodying, amplifying and packaging all the worst stereotypes and prejudices."[6]

• 1998, U.S., G. P. Putnam's Sons ISBN 0-399-14390-4, Pub date 3 August 1998, hardcover
• 1998, U.K., Michael Joseph Ltd ISBN 0-7181-4336-1, Pub date 27 August 1998, hardback
• 1998, U.S., Putnam Publishing Group ISBN 0-399-14413-7, Pub date August 1998, hardcover (Limited Edition)
• 1998, U.S., Demco Media ISBN 0-606-17207-6, Pub date September 1998, unbound
• 1998, U.S., Random House ISBN 0-375-70324-1, Pub date August 1998, paperback (Large Type Edition)
• 1999, U.S., Berkley Publishing Group ISBN 0-425-17005-5, Pub date September 1999, paperback
• 1999, U.S., Berkley Publishing Group ISBN 0-425-17034-9, Pub date September 1999, mass market paperback

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