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    Night Moves (1999)


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      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Copyright Page

      Acknowledgements

      Epigraph

      PART ONE - The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      PART TWO - Base, Angle, Leverage

      Chapter 20

      Chapter 21

      Chapter 22

      Chapter 23

      Chapter 24

      Chapter 25

      Chapter 26

      Chapter 27

      Chapter 28

      Chapter 29

      Chapter 30

      Chapter 31

      Chapter 32

      Chapter 33

      Chapter 34

      Chapter 35

      Chapter 36

      Chapter 37

      Chapter 38

      Chapter 39

      Chapter 40

      EPILOGUE

      THE BESTSELLING NOVELS OF

      TOM CLANCY

      THE TEETH OF THE TIGER

      A new generation--Jack Ryan, Jr.--takes over in Tom Clancy's

      extraordinary, and extraordinarily prescient, novel.

      "INCREDIBLY ADDICTIVE." --Daily Mail (London)

      RED RABBIT

      Tom Clancy returns to Jack Ryan's early days--

      in an engrossing novel of global political drama ...

      "A WILD, SATISFYING RIDE." --New York Daily News

      THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON

      A clash of world powers. President Jack Ryan's trial by fire.

      "HEART-STOPPING ACTION ... CLANCY STILL REIGNS." --The Washington Post

      RAINBOW SIX

      John Clark is used to doing the CIA's dirty work.

      Now he's taking on the world ...

      "ACTION-PACKED." --The New York Times Book Review

      EXECUTIVE ORDERS

      A devastating terrorist act 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 backstreets of Tokyo. It ends in war ...

      "A SHOCKER." --Entertainment Weekly

      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

      The killing of three U.S. officials in Colombia ignites the

      American government's explosive, and top secret, response . . .

      "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

      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

      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 BEARAND THE DRAGON

      RED RABBIT

      THE TEETH OF THE TIGER

      SSN: STRATEGIES OF SUBMARINE WARFARE

      Nonfiction

      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 Franks, Jr., Ret., and Tony Koltz)

      EVERY MAN A TIGER

      (written with General Charles Horner, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

      SHADOW WARRIORS: INSIDE THE SPECIAL FORCES

      (written with General Carl Stiner, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

      BATTLE READY

      (written with General Tony Zinni, Ret., and Tony Koltz)

      Created by Tom Clancy

      TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL

      TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL: OPERATION BARRACUDA

      TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL: CHECKMATE

      TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL: FALLOUT

      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 OP-CENTER: MISSION OF HONOR

      TOM CLANCY'S OP-CENTER: SEA OF FIRE

      TOM CLANCY'S OP-CENTER: CALL TO TREASON

      TOM CLANCY'S OP-CENTER: WAR OF EAGLES

      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

      TOM CLANCY'S NET FORCE: STATE OF WAR

      TOM CLANCY'S NET FORCE: CHANGING OF THE GUARD

      TOM CLANCY'S NET FORCE: SPRINGBOARD

      TOM CLANCY'S NET FORCE: THE ARCHIMEDES EFFECT

      Created by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg

      TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS: POLITIKA

      TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS: RUTHLESS.COM

      TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS: SHADOW WATCH

      TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS: BIO-STRIKE

      TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS: COLD WAR

      TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS: CUTTING EDGE

      TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS: ZERO HOUR

      TOM CLANCY'S POWER PLAYS: WILD CARD

      THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

      Published by the Penguin Group


      Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

      375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

      Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada

      (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

      Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

      Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

      Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

      (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)

      Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi--110 017, India

      Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand

      (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

      Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196,

      South Africa

      Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

      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(r): NIGHT MOVES

      A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with Netco Partners

      PRINTING HISTORY

      Berkley edition / April 2000

      Copyright (c) 1999 by Netco Partners.

      NET FORCE(r) is a registered trademark of Netco Partners, a partnership of Big Entertainment, Inc., and CP Group.

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form

      without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in

      violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

      For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

      a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

      375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

      eISBN : 978-1-101-00246-9

      BERKLEY(r)

      Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

      a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

      375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

      BERKLEY(r) is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

      The "B" design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

      http://us.penguingroup.com

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      We'd like to thank Steve Perry for his creative ideas and his invaluable contributions to the preparation of the manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Martin H. Greenberg, Larry Segriff, Denise Little, John Heifers, Robert Youdelman, Esq., Richard Heller, Esq., and Tom Mallon, Esq.; Mitchell Rubenstein and Laurie Silvers at BIG Entertainment; the wonderful people at Penguin Putnam Inc., including Phyllis Grann, David Shanks, and Tom Colgan. As always, we would like to thank Robert Gottlieb of the William Morris Agency, our agent and friend, without whom this book would never have been conceived. But most important, it is for you, our readers, to determine how successful our collective endeavor has been.

      "The history of the sword is the history of humanity. "

      --Richard Burton

      "Putting on the spectacles of science in expectation of finding the answer to everything looked at signifies inner blindness. "

      --J. Frank Dobie

      PROLOGUE

      Friday, April 1st, 2011, 2:15 A.M.

      Outside Sahiwal, Pakistan

      The middle of the night, and still the temperature hovered near ninety. The humidity was so high that sweat did not evaporate and, having nowhere else to go, sour perspiration soaked the men's black uniforms. Only April, and already a new record high for this date in the Punjab, almost a hundred and fifteen, with more of the same predicted for tomorrow. Pah.

      Three of the men in sodden black camouflage clothes lay in the darker shadow of a row of stunted bushes a few dozen yards from the railroad tracks, waiting.

      In the distance, the sound of the train's whistle announced that it was on its way.

      "It won't be long now," Bhattacharya said. Fat as he was, the others sometimes called him Ganesha, after the elephant god, though they did not say this to his face. However corpulent he might be, Bhattacharya was quick to anger, equally quick to move, and once moving, a formidable opponent. Until two years ago, Bhattacharya had been an officer, a colonel. Then, at a garden party in Panipat, he had stabbed another colonel who had insulted him, and it was only the lucky presence of a doctor that had saved the fat man from a murder charge. As it was, what he'd done was enough to have him stripped of his rank and arrested--and offered jail or a transfer to the Special Unit.

      Like similar covert organizations around the world, the Special Unit did not officially exist. None of the men carried regular army-issue weapons or gear. Their assault rifles were surplus Chinese AKs, their pistols German, their sheath knives were from Japan. Their communications equipment came from New Zealand, their boots from Indonesia, their clothes from Australia. No man had upon his person any item that would officially identify him at all, much less identify him as an Indian soldier. And during an operation, no man was to allow himself to be captured. If such an event became likely, a quick suicide by gun or knife was expected. This was not as heroic as it might seem. Anyone who refused to do his duty would soon be dead anyway: Before embarking upon this mission, each man had taken a slow-acting poison. If he returned from the mission, he would be given the antidote and would suffer only a few days of flulike misery. If he did not return for any reason, he would die a lingering and painful death, the effects of which made suicide seem a picnic in the park. Better to choose the quick exit, if it came to that.

      When there were dark military things to be done in India, the SU was called upon to do them. Most countries had such units, though most would quickly deny such an accusation.

      This mission was as dark as any. Sneaking into Pakistan for a covert operation was a risky proposition at best. Packy was a touchy one, and given the current political situation, it was easy to understand why.

      Next to Ganesha lay Rahman, around forty, a man of no particular caste from New Delhi. Rahman was long and lean, the opposite of Bhattacharya. Rahman was familiar with this area of Pakistan, having once been a member of India's Border Security Force, the BSF foot-stampers who faced the Pakistan Rangers across the wire at the Wagah Post. There, each evening, both sides danced the mutual show of stylized aggression that marked the daily lowering of the flags and ceremonial blatting of the bugles. Crowds came from miles to see the mock battle, cheering each side on as if it were a soccer match.

      The third man was Harbhajan Singh and, naturally, he was called The Sikh. Although Singh was certainly not an unusual name for a Sikh, he had in fact been named specifically for the particular soldier who had achieved moksha--enlightenment--while patrolling the border with China in the 1960s near Nathu-La. All they had ever found of that Singh were his snow goggles, his helmet, and his rifle. To this day, Singh's ghost still patrolled the area, and the Chinese often saw him standing on top of a mountain or walking across the surface of a stream. The army had not believed the story for a long time, until a visiting general offered disrespect to the ghost and for his attitude was promptly killed in a helicopter crash on his way home. From then on, the new commanders of the region were most careful to send their personal cars to the area once a year, to offer Singh a ride to the train station for his annual leave. And a seat would be booked for the ghost on the train, too. It must have made for an interesting trip to have been the driver of the car, though no one had ever claimed to see Singh riding in the car or on the train.

      All of which was fascinating, but not doing much to alleviate the discomfort this Singh felt under his beard and turban from the night's tropical
    heat. Even though his great-great-grandfather had lived near Lahore, only a few miles north of here, Singh had spent much of his life in Madras, on the Bay of Bengal, and while that city was certainly warm year-round, at least there were sea breezes to offer relief. Too, he had lived several years in Calcutta, and that had been hotter than Madras, but even Calcutta was not baked as was the Punjab, the hottest place on earth, so it was said. He could believe it.

      "There it is," Bhattacharya said. "See the light, there?"

      Singh and Rahman nodded and murmured their agreement. Along the track, the other "mercenaries" would be gathering themselves for the attack. There were sixty of them, and while some would probably die during the assault, they would be missed only by their comrades. You did not join the SU unless you were alone in the world: no wife, no family, no ties to anything. You were expendable.

      The train's whistle bleated again, drawing nearer.

      Singh gripped his AK-47 clone and took a deeper breath of the fetid and hot night air. He was not a very good Sikh, had not been for many years, but he was moved to repeat God's name a few times anyway. No harm in that.

      The train came into view. What the engineer could not see ahead was a set of angled derailing plates that had been artfully welded to the rails, right where the tracks curved and banked a hair to the left.

      The special train from Multan to Lahore was about to make an unscheduled and most abrupt stop.

      Singh held his breath as the chugging engine hit the plates. There came a loud clang and a scream of protesting metal. The engine jumped the tracks, plowed into the ground, and ripped up great chunks of earth. More crashing noises filled the air as the engine slammed onto its side and kept skidding.

     


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