Rainbow Six (novel)

Rainbow Six

First edition cover
Author	Tom Clancy
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	John Clark
Genre	Techno-thriller Military fiction Medical fiction Crime fiction Realistic fiction
Set in	Ryanverse
Publisher	G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date	August 3, 1998
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages	740
ISBN	0399143904
Preceded by	Executive Orders
Followed by	The Bear and the Dragon

Rainbow Six is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 3, 1998. It is the second book to primarily focus on John Clark, one of the recurring characters in the Ryanverse, after Without Remorse (1993). Rainbow Six also features his son-in-law Domingo "Ding" Chavez, and explores the adventures of a multinational counter-terrorism unit that they formed, codenamed as Rainbow. The title refers to Clark's title as commander of Rainbow. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list,^[1] and has since been adapted into a series of video games.

Plot summary[]

CIA operative John Clark forms a secret multi-national counter-terrorist unit known as Rainbow. Based in Hereford, England, 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 serves as the commanding officer, his son-in-law Domingo Chavez leads one of the two squads, and the second in command is Special Air Service (SAS) officer Alistair Stanley.

For their first deployment, Chavez's squad rescues hostages during a 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 "special access codes" to the international trading markets. They are then deployed to a hostage situation in an amusement park in Spain, where a group of French terrorists have taken 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 rise in terrorist attacks. Unbeknownst to them, the first two attacks are part of a master plan to wipe out nearly all of the human race, codenamed "the Project". Dr. John Brightling, a staunch environmentalist who heads a biotechnology firm called the Horizon Corporation, ordered the attacks through ex-KGB officer Dmitriy Popov in order to raise awareness against terrorism, which would then allow co-conspirator Bill Henriksen's security firm to land a key contract during the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. From within the Olympics security apparatus, Henriksen plans to use a bioweapon 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. Since people from virtually every country in the world are present at the Olympics, infecting them would ensure the swift worldwide spread of the virus. The resulting epidemic would kill millions, and Horizon would distribute a "vaccine" that actually contains a slow-acting version of the virus itself, which would then kill the rest of the world's population. The "chosen few", having been provided with the real vaccine, would then be allowed to inherit the emptied world, justifying their genocidal actions as "saving the world" from the destructive nature of humanity.

Popov, unaware of the Project, discovers the existence of Rainbow as he reviews the responses to his attacks, and brings it to Brightling's attention. He is later tasked by Brightling and Henriksen to orchestrate an attack on Rainbow 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 as, respectively, a nurse and a doctor) hostage. Although two Rainbow operatives are killed and several others wounded in an ambush, the two Rainbow teams manage to retake the building without civilian casualties and capture some of the terrorists. Interrogation of their leader, Sean Grady, reveals Popov's involvement, and Brightling brings him to Horizon's secret OLYMPUS base in Kansas.

However, this action turns out to have been a fatal miscalculation by the conspirators; Popov had no idea of the genocidal plans of his employers, but people which he meets at the Kansas facility talk openly about them. Upon learning about "The Project", an appalled Popov escapes and reveals his knowledge to Clark. Popov's warning comes just in time for Chavez and his team, who were deployed to the Olympics to oversee venue security, to 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 personally leads a team there, and they dispatch the remaining terrorists and destroy the facility and supplies. Knowing that there is not enough evidence to convict them, Clark instead has the survivors stripped naked and left to fend for themselves in the jungle, taunting them to "reconnect with nature."

Team Rainbow[]

Executive and support branches[]

• John Clark: Commander of Rainbow (known as Rainbow Six)
• Alistair Stanley: Deputy commander (Rainbow Five)
• Bill Tawney: Head of the intelligence section and former MI6 intelligence analyst
• Dr. Paul Bellow: In-house psychologist specializing in criminal psychology
• Tim Noonan: Resident tactical electronics and surveillance specialist, also working as special agent for Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Daniel "Bear" Malloy: Lieutenant colonel for the U.S. Marines and pilot of the MH-60K Night Hawk helicopter used for Rainbow missions, beginning with the hostage situation in the Spanish amusement park
  • Harrison: First Lieutenant, ex-helicopter pilot for 1st Special Operations Wing and Malloy's co-pilot
• Dave Woods: British Colour Sergeant, firing range instructor
• Alice Foorgate and Helen Montgomery: Executive Secretaries, British
• Katherine Moony: Secretary, British

Team 1[]

• Major Peter Covington: Commander and member of the SAS
• Miguel "Mike" Chin: Former U.S. Navy SEAL as Master Chief Machinist's Mate
• Mortimer "Sam" Houston: Sniper-observer
• Fred 'Freddy' Franklin: Rifle 1–2, Sergeant 1st Class, Former Instructor Army's Marksmanship - Fort Benning
• Geoff Bates: British SAS

Team 2[]

• Domingo "Ding" Chavez: Commander, leader of team, CIA, Special Activities Division, and Clark's son-in-law
• Julio "Oso" Vega: Machine gunner and former Delta Force member
• Eddie Price: Senior member and former SAS sergeant major
• Louis Loiselle: Former French paratrooper who had been detailed to DGSE
• Dieter Weber: Sniper 2-2, former German GSG 9 Feldwebel, a factual error, the German Bundesgrenzschutz didn't use military ranks after 1975)
• Homer Johnston: Sniper, former Special Forces and Delta Force member
• George Tomlinson: US Army, former Special Forces and Delta Force member
• Mike Pierce: US Army, former member of the 82nd Airborne Division, other associations unknown

Horizon Corporation and affiliates[]

• John Brightling: Billionaire, Chairman of Horizon Corporation and mastermind of "the Project"
• Bill Henriksen: Consultant and head of Global Security, former FBI agent with the Hostage Rescue Team
• Carol Brightling: Science Advisor to the President and former wife of John Brightling. Their divorce is a ruse used to safeguard her position, which enables her to pass secrets to Horizon.
• John Killgore: Senior research scientist in the testing project of the Shiva virus
• Barbara Archer: Researcher in testing the Shiva virus
• Kirk Maclean: Tasked with kidnapping alcoholic homeless men in New York City to be used as test subjects for Shiva testing
• Mark Waterhouse: Recruiter for Brightling's "chosen few"
• Foster Hunnicutt: Survivalist and member of Brightling's "chosen few"; the reason for Popov's betrayal
• Wilson Gearing: Ex-lieutenant colonel with the Chemical Corps; selected to release the Shiva virus at Sydney

Other characters[]

• Dmitriy Arkadyevich Popov (aka Iosef Serov aka Joseph Andrews): Former KGB operations officer working for Brightling
• Sandra "Sandy" Clark: John Clark's wife, nurse
• Patricia "Patsy" Clark-Chavez: John Clark's daughter and Domingo Chavez's pregnant wife, MD
• Ernst Model: Sociopathic former Red Army Faction member who leads the botched bank robbery in Bern, Switzerland
• Hans Fürchtner: Recruited by Popov to take over the schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman
• Petra Dortmund: Fürchtner's longtime terrorist partner
• Erwin Ostermann: Austrian financier taken hostage by Fürchtner and Dortmund in his home
• Andre Herr: Former Action Directe member in charge of the hostage situation at Worldpark, an amusement park in Spain
• Sean Grady: Provisional Irish Republican Army cell commander who leads the attack on the Hereford hospital
• Tom Sullivan: FBI agent based in New York investigating Bannister's disappearance
• Frank Chatham: FBI agent and Sullivan's partner
• Ed Foley: Director of Central Intelligence
• Mary Bannister: One of the test subjects in the Shiva transmission study run by Dr. Killgore

Themes[]

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 or rather cull the human race, mad scientists plotting world domination, and high-tech secret bases hidden from civilization. However, Clancy makes the plot relevant and morally ambiguous by incorporating motivations similar to those of real-life radical ecocentric environmentalists and deep ecologists, such as Pentti Linkola, rather than blanket hunger for power and brash misanthropic resentment.^[2][3] In several regards, critics have noted similarities in this regard to the later-released Kingsman: The Secret Service and Dan Brown's Inferno.^[4]

Reception[]

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".^[5]

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."^[6] Entertainment Weekly also noted that "some of [Clancy's] secondary characters have a flat, dime-novel feel".^[7] 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."^[8]

Adaptations[]

Video game[]

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six was first released on August 21, 1998, about two weeks after the release of the novel. The plot of the game differs from the book, as the game was completed first. Video game developer Red Storm Entertainment, which was co-founded by Clancy two years before, based the game's concept on the FBI Hostage Rescue Team in an international setting.^[9] The game became a commercial success for Red Storm and has spawned a number of sequels. It has since revolutionized the first-person shooter genre by forcing the player to think tactically and realistically in every mission, unlike the arcade games of the time.^[10][11]

Film[]

In July 2017, Paramount Pictures announced plans to make a film adaptation of the novel with Akiva Goldsman as producer.^[12] Ryan Reynolds was reported to be in early talks to play Clark.^[13] In September 2018, Michael B. Jordan was announced to be playing the main character in a two-part film series, with Rainbow Six as the intended sequel to a film adaptation of another Clancy novel featuring Clark, Without Remorse.^[14]

Release details[]

• 1998, U.S., G. P. Putnam's Sons ISBN 0-399-14390-4, Pub date August 3, 1998, hardcover
• 1998, U.K., Michael Joseph Ltd ISBN 0-7181-4336-1, Pub date August 27, 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

References[]

External links[]

• Quotations related to Rainbow Six (novel) at Wikiquote