Tom Clancy Power and Empire by Marc Cameron–A Book Report

A Book Report by Bobby Everett Smith

Spoiler Alert

February 14, 2018

Setting

Washington, D.C., Dallas, Texas, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Tokyo, Japan combined with naval activities in East China Sea and Western Pacific during the current day.

Characters

Jack Ryan, Jr. Operative for The Campus, a Top-Secret Intelligence organization which works for the U.S. Government most of the time. Also, the son of the president of the United States.

John Clark, Director of Operations of The Campus

Ding Chavez, Operative of The Campus

Gavin Biery, Director of Information Technology at The Campus

Jack Ryan, President of the United States

Scott Adler, Secretary of State

Mary Pat Foley, Director of National Intelligence

Jay Canfield, Director of CIA

Arnold Van Damm, Chief of Staff to President Jack Ryan

Adara Sherman, Operations Officer of The Campus

Monzaki Yukiko, Japanese Intelligence operative, flits with Ryan, Jr.

Lcdr. Andrew Slaznik, Helicopter pilot, USCG, flying rescue operations on Orion

Lcdr. Jimmy Akana, Commanding Officer, USS Rogue,

Dave Holloway, Commanding Officer, Meriwether, caught between China and the advancing typhoon

Zhao Chengzhi, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, President of China

Huang Ju, President Zhao’s principal protection officer

Li Zhengsheng, Chinese Foreign Minister

Xu Jinlong, Lt. General in Chinese army, Director of Central Security

Long Yun, Colonel, Li’s principal protective officer

Eddie Feng, Taiwan journalist working in Texas

Magdalena Rojas, 13-year-old victim of sex trafficking in Texas

Ernie Pacheco, aka Metarife, or the Slaughterer, principal in child trafficking in Texas

Lupe, Bottom Girl, works for Metarife

Kelsey Callahan, FBI Agent in charge of Dallas Crimes Against Children’s Task Force

Emilio Zambrano, Upper boss in Mexican Cartel working in Texas

Executive Summary

China and the United States are in continual conflict while the presidents of the two nations try to gain advantage without destroying the world. China’s President Zhao is working to build new islands in the western Pacific and President Jack Ryan is trying to prevent China’s further expansion. They are both preparing for a G20 meeting to be held in Tokyo. Zhao has internal problems with his Foreign Minister Li planning for a coup that will take down both Chinese and American leaders.

The Campus is a private intelligence organization which operates under contract to the U.S. government, a private CIA. Jack Ryan, Jr. is an operative for The Campus and he sometimes interacts with his father, the president.

A group of operatives from The Campus have been dispatched to Dallas to surveil Eddie Feng, a Taiwanese journalist, who has been tracked to Dallas, Jack Jr. is amongst the crew who is trying to learn what Feng is doing and what he knows about a subway bombing in Beijing.

FBI Special Agent Kelsey Callahan manages the Crimes Against Children Task Force in North Texas. It is no small job with 75,000 cases of child pornography and a total revenue for trafficking of $35 billion in the United States the previous year. Callahan herself was responsible for 54 child rescues within the past year.

The Campus team wastes little time in finding Feng who is imbedded in the child porn, prostitution, and human trafficking rings. They put a trace on him and quickly become imbedded with Special Agent Callahan in trying to put a stop to the brutal treatment of girls, mostly imported from Mexico, as young as 13 years old.

In China, Xu Jinlong, director of Central Security Bureau, is preparing the sinking of a Chinese cargo ship, the Orion, in American waters. The motive for this clandestine action is not apparent.

When President Zhao discusses sinking of Orion, it is not clear to him either and while some on his staff thought the USA was behind the sinking, he could not figure out a motive.

Foreign Minister Li is preparing for a dinner for several selected Chinese leaders and their wives. After dinner, Li and three of the men retire to his study to discuss the sinking of Orion and the disruption of the G20 meeting to be followed by the replacement of Zhao by Li, a coup de tat.

Mamat, 25 years, leads a pirate gang on the island of Buru near Indonesia. The gang was waiting for orders to intercept and capture an American sailing ship, the Lucky Strike, enroute to Singapore. The American patrol ship USS Rogue was not far away, and it was the real target of the pirates. The Lucky Strike and its four Americans on board were the bait.

Three of the Americans on the Lucky Strike are killed by the pirates, and all the pirates are killed by the crew of the USS Rogue, a U.S. patrol boat. Except for several mistakes made by the pirates, the Rogue might have been blown up. One U.S. sailor was killed in the attack.

The Campus team’s IT director the crew that she had discovered Vincent Chen, a Chinese spy, who is booked tomorrow at three thirty p.m. for Buenos Aires. Part of the Campus Team will stay in Dallas and the rest, including Jack Ryan, Jr, will head immediately to Buenos Aires on the corporate jet. They will be in Argentina to set up a reception for Vincent Chen.

Chen is going to Buenos Aires to link up with Foreign Minister Li where they plan a bombing at a restaurant to take out guests of a department of Agriculture meeting. This was one of Li’s first steps in taking over as president of China and disrupting the G20 meeting, bringing discredit to the U.S.

President Ryan arrives in Tokyo for his face-to-face meeting with China President Zhao. In the meantime, The Campus team has move from Buenos Aires to Tokyo to help in protecting the United States president.

Foreign Minister Li had arranged to have three new protective agents replace Zhao’s normal security team. These agents, loyal to Li, had participated in the restaurant bombing in Buenos Aires. Yuki had remembered them when they turn up on Zhao’s security detail at the G20.

Jack Jr., using a secret code he had worked out previously with his father, notifies the president that three substitute security personnel for Zhao were present with him and that violence will happen. The president and his personal body guard head into a bathroom in the room where they are meeting.

Zhao recognizes that Li is leading a coup. Col. Huang, Li’s protector, shoots Li’s guy. Li and his agents are captured. Zhao predicts they will be tried and executed swiftly.

The G20 completes on schedule.

The Story

The Campus is a Top-Secret intelligence contractor which the U.S. federal government frequently hires to perform specific intelligence tasks. Jack Ryan, Jr. is the son of the president of the United States and an operative of The Campus.

Jack Ryan is the president of the United States and he is preparing to attend a G20 meeting to be held in Tokyo.

The Campus has been hired to go to Dallas, Texas and set up surveillance on a Taiwanese journalist by the name of Eddie Feng. Jack Jr. and several of his colleagues are on their way to Dallas to begin this operation which has ties to child pornography, human trafficking and links to a Beijing subway bombing reported by Eddie Feng.

Child Trafficking in Texas

The Campus team arrives in Dallas at DFW for trailing Feng to find out what he knows and what information he may have about China. Feng turns up right away in the heart of the Dallas prostitution activity. Something is going on.

FBI Special Agent Kelsey Callahan manages the Crimes Against Children Task Force in North Texas. It is no small job with 75,000 cases of child pornography alone in the National Data Base not to mention trafficking of young girls as young as 13 being brought across the border from Mexico and into prostitution rings in Dallas and Ft. Worth. Total revenue for trafficking was $35 billion in the United States the previous year. Callahan, herself, was responsible for 54 child rescues within the past year.

After tracking Feng through the strip joints of Dallas, Callahan, and Ryan, jr. capture him and take him to the Dallas jail where he convinces them that he is really one of he good guys and he can help them in finding additional information about China.

But Feng is identified by cartel brothers as their enemy and he is attacked by members of the gang, a corrections officer, at the jail. Apparently, someone thinks that Feng has information that is too important to allow him to live.

U.S.-China Conflicts

Orion, China Global Shipping Lines

In China, Xu Jinlong, director of Central Security Bureau, is preparing the sinking of a Chinese cargo ship, the Orion, in American waters. The motive for this clandestine action is not initially clear.

General Xu pays for certain containers to be loaded so that they will sink Orion in American waters as the ship enters the Straits of Juan de Fuca. On reaching Xu’s intended target location, explosions aboard Orion bring the ship to the point of sinking. The U.S. Coast Guard responds to mayday calls and rescues 22 of 32 on board. The President of the U.S. is notified of the explosion and rescues.

Zhao Chengzhi, President of China or General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, met with members of his staff to discuss the sinking of Orion. Most thought the United States was behind the bombing, but Zhao could not figure out a reason the U.S. would sink a Chinese container ship in its own waters and then rescue most of the crew.

In his home near Beijing, Foreign Minister Li is preparing for a dinner for several selected Chinese leaders and their wives. General Xu, director of Central Security, and his wife are among the guests. Three of the men guests are invited into Minister Li’s private study when the dinner is over. Secretary Deng spoke, “Public approval for Zhao is waning, as you predicted,” he said looking at Minister Li.

“Chinese targets are not our only interests,” Li said. “Before we are finished, President Ryan will be ready to fly to Beijing and shoot President Zhao himself.”

Li turned to General Xu. “Your man, Huang, Zhao’s chief body guard, can we trust him?”

“Uncompromising principles, but I can assure you, he will not be a problem.”

Pirates in Indonesian Waters—USS Rogue

Mamat, 25 years, leads a pirate gang on the island of Buru near Indonesia. The gang is waiting for orders to intercept and capture an American sailing ship, Lucky Strike, enroute to Singapore. The American patrol ship USS Rogue was not far away, and it was the real target. Lucky Strike and its four Americans on board are the bait.

The pirate boat with its seven-man crew approaches Lucky Strike. Tony and Kenneth had one shotgun and a flare gun which they retrieved as they watched the pirates approaching. The pirates fire and Kenneth falls. Karla got to the radio and calls “Mayday, Mayday. Pirates on board.”

“Lucky Strike, this is United States Naval Vessel Rogue…”

The Rogue is a patrol vessel in the area protecting tourists from pirate attack, Lcdr. Jimmy Akana, in command with a crew of 28. On receiving the Mayday call, the CO orders the launch of the ship’s drone. Lucky Strike is 10 miles away.

The two women on the boat are tied on the main deck of the sailing craft. They were gagged and bound. Both men are dead. The drone picks up the women on the sailboat and observes the pirate boat pulling away. “This does not seem right,” the captain of the Rogue says.

Unknown to the Rogue crew, the pirates hve planted a bomb on the sailboat.

“We are planning to board,” the captain called although he and the others thought something was amiss.

The woman on the bow has gotten loose and she was waving at the boarding crew to back off. Pirates down below began firing from the portholes. The woman on the bow jumps in the ocean; the boarding crew picks her up. The pirates fired an RPG which misses but Petty Officer Ridgeway is hit and killed.

The crew on the Rogue began to fire their Mk 28 Chain Gun at the pirate’s boat which is now returning to the sailboat at 19 knots. The twenty-five-millimeter bullets rips the pirate boat to shreds.

Mamat is below deck on the sailing ship. He has been shot in the arm and both legs. The Rogue is hauling ass away from the sail boat. Mamat can reach the detonator to the bomb his crew had installed. The blast pulverized Lucky Strike.

When President Ryan gets the word of the pirate attack and the death of 3/c Petty Officer Stephen Ridgeway, he puts in a condolence call to the sailor’s parents. Ryan and his national security staff discuss the Rogue incident and any ties that that may have had with the Orion sinking in American waters. Ryan decides he wanted to have a face-to-face meeting with Zhao, the president of China.

Buenos Aires

The Campus team gathered in the Omni Hotel in downtown Dallas. Their IT director told them that she had discovered Vincent Chen aka Todd Lee and Donny Lao who is booked tomorrow at three thirty p.m. for Buenos Aires. Part of the Campus Team will stay in Dallas and the rest, including Jack Ryan, Jr, will head immediately to Buenos Aires on the corporate jet. They will be in Argentina to set up a reception for Vincent Chen.

During the flight to Buenos Aires, Chavez, on The Campus team, discovered a meeting that was scheduled for Buenos Aires the following week. The meeting included the Argentinian minister of agriculture along with his counterparts in six other countries. The big surprise was that Chinese Foreign Minister Li would also be at the meeting. Something was going on bigger than an agriculture meeting.

Amanda Salazar and friend Beatriz met at the Parilla Aires Coriollos restaurant. While having dinner, the two attractive women worked at their primary mission: planting a bomb in the restaurant’s air conditioning vents. They had previously scouted the restaurant to find the right table and determine the best time for installing the bomb.

While following Vincent Chen, Ryan, Jr., meets Yuki, Japanese Intelligence.

At the restaurant on the night of the dinner, Foreign Minister Li arrived with his protective crew, Long Yun in charge.

Minister Li was seated next to the Argentinian host. The bomb was hidden just behind the Agricultural minister’s chair. At 7:20 p.m., Li signaled his security leader that he wanted to excuse himself for a trip to the restroom. There, Li called Amanda who was waiting outside the restaurant. The foreign minister typed in the first half of a detonation code via his telephone. Amanda would enter the second half of the code when she was ready.

The initial blast took out the Argentinian Minister of Agriculture. He was dead. The Japanese minister of agriculture would almost certainly die. Two of Li’s security detail were also killed. Minister Li took some shrapnel in the shoulder which only strengthened his claim that he was the targeted victim of the bombing. In truth, he was behind it all with his plan to replace President Zhao in a successful coup. Disrupting the G20 and even killing President Ryan was a secondary benefit.

Jack Jr. was watching from across the street when the blast occurred. Ryan spotted the brunette who had triggered the bomb and gave chase. While both Yuki and Ryan Jr. were chasing the brunette, they ran into each other. “What gives,” Jack Jr. asked. “She is escaping,” Yuki replied.

Meriwether

The Defense Intelligence Agency Research Ship Meriwether was operating in the south western Pacific working as a spy ship for the U.S. government. Although it looked like a fishing vessel doing research, it was really collecting signals from Chinese submarine operations. Meriwether experiences an engine failure, primarily due to improper maintenance as opposed to covert action from the Chinese. Even so, Captain Dave Holloway found himself adrift in the middle of the ocean between Catelyn, an approaching typhoon, and the Chinese land to the west. Holloway had to save the ship and his crew, but he also had to protect the many classified hardware and software assets on board.

President Jack Ryan is informed about the ship’s condition and he establishes contact with the Meriwether’s Captain Holloway. No injuries but the storm has turned to the West and is about five hours away. A Chinese destroyer intent on rescue is heading from Chinese territory. With no power, the Meriwether is a good target for the storm or the Chinese. Neither alternative was good.

President Ryan dispatched help from the U.S. Navy and placed a call to Chinese President Zhao. Ryan’s goal was to protect the men first and then the classified assets of Meriwether. Zhao agreed to stand clear of the spy ship unless it drifted into Chinese waters. Ryan was determined not to let the Meriwether fall into Chinese hands.

G20 Meeting in Tokyo

Ryan left on schedule for the G20 meeting which was being held this year in Tokyo. Jack Jr. and other members of Campus were already there.

Enroute to Tokyo, the president is informed that Meriwether had to abandon ship into rubber rafts amid 30 feet waves. The ship would be sunk to protect the assets. A Chinese destroyer was enroute to try to capture the ship and an American submarine, the Seawolf was on site to prevent Meriwether’s capture.

President Ryan turned his attention to Zhao. What was the U.S. strategy for meeting with the Chinese president?

In Japan, Jack Ryan, Jr. met with his Japanese Intelligence, Yuki. They are following the footsteps of Vincent Chen and Kim Soo, a woman partner. Gun fire erupts and Chen and Kim Soo both go down. Chen lasted a few minutes but died while Yuki and Ryan were interrogating him.

Three of Zhao’s protective staff had been killed in an attack near Beijing and the Foreign Minister suggested to Zhao that he had three trustworthy men who could replace them as protectors of President Zhao. Zhao reluctantly agreed to the replacement.

Air Force One arrived in Japan at Yakota AFB about 30 miles west of Tokyo. The president flew by helicopter to his hotel in Tokyo where he began to prepare for his meeting with Zhao.

Yuki and Ryan, Jr., approaching Tokyo by train, are determined to protect President Ryan. Of course, Jr. is additionally incentivized to protect his father.

President Zhao arrives at the hotel as does Foreign Minister Li and his protective detail including the three replacements.

Yuki recognizes two of the men from the bombing attack in Buenos Aires. “Me too,” exclaims Ryan Jr. who also recognizes the replacements, “we’ve got a problem.”

Ryan, Jr. sends a coded message by text to his father, “Three bad guys new to Zhao’s detail. Violence likely.” Ryan Jr. hit his send button and then send the same message again and again. He and his father had worked out an agreement that if Jack Jr. sent the same message three times in a row, the President would always answer it no matter what else was going on.

President Ryan received the message just after starting his conversation with President Zhao. After reading the text, Ryan showed it to his security chief, Gary Montgomery. Both presidents agreed there was a security problem and they moved with their closest guards into the bathroom. “Members of my intelligence community agree that your foreign minister Li is in a coup against you and an assassination against me.” President Ryan said.

Col. Huang pulled his own pistol and shot one of Li’s protectors. Montgomery and two other Secret Service agents surrounded Ryan and escorted him to a waiting helicopter on the roof of the hotel. The president was safe.

Li and his assistants in the coup would be tried and executed. Zhao survives. Yuki and Jack Ryan, jr. looked at each other fondly with hopes of meeting again in the future.

Rating

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three stars out of five

This is another exciting novel that features the characters invented by Tom Clancy in his books like Red October. It is entertaining and fun to read but the achievements of Jack Ryan Jr, are sometimes hard to believe. The three major plots are hard to synchronize.  I recommend reading the book for fun and entertainment.