Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate
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| Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate | |
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| Author | David Michaels |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell |
| Genre(s) | Spy novel |
| Publisher | Penguin Group |
| Publication date | 7 November 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 9780425212783 |
| Preceded by | Operation Barracuda |
| Followed by | Fallout |
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate is a 2006 novel in the Splinter Cell series and a sequel to the 2005 novel Operation Barracuda. Checkmate, like the previous two books, was written under the pseudonym David Michaels, although the previous two books were written by Raymond Benson. Checkmate was written by a new and currently unknown author.
Unlike the first two books, Checkmate is not written in first person from the point of view of the protagonist, Sam Fisher, nor does Checkmate continue the running subplots that were previously established in the book series.
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[edit] Plot summary
The story follows Sam Fisher, a Third Echelon special operative.
Sam is on a training mission when Lambert calls him to tell him about a cargo ship-called the Trego off the coast of North Carolina is carrying something hot. There is only one man on board, who Fisher wounds, but not before the man orders the automated ship to pick up speed. Fisher is able to stop the ship before it runs aground.
When Sam returns, Lambert tells him that he has to break into the United States Naval Base where the Trego is located, to conduct a separate Third Echelon investigation. The laptop he recovered from the ship had a computer virus on it that attacked the Third Echelon server when Grimsdottir plugged it in. That same day, the small town of Slipstone, New Mexico is radiation poisoned, and 5,289 people die. Sam returns to the ship, under a high security watch by the Navy, to get it's serial number.
Back at Third Echelon, Lambert shows Sam what happened to the rest of the Trego 's crew; another boat came and the men disappeared. The ship is identified as the Duroc, and Sam infiltrates it. When the captain yells at one of his crew to "blow it!", Sam kills him. Sam chases the man only to realize that the man has set the Duroc to blow, and Sam makes a hasty but clean extraction. Lambert tells Sam they found the rest of the Trego 's crew, executed in a burned out coffee warehouse in the Bahamas. Grimsdottir also discovers that the person that programmed the laptop virus was a man named Marcus Greenhorn, a man on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, and currently staying at the Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai.
Sam infiltrates the hotel, and makes his way up to Greenhorn's suite, where he wakes up a sleeping Greenhorn and interrogates him for information. Unfortunately for Sam, Greenhorn's girlfriend also wakes up and calls security. They come and kill Greenhorn, but Sam extracts from the hotel safely.
Via television at a safe house, Sam listens in on a conversation between the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Two men have been arrested in Texas, and one of them said that he was involved in the Slipstone attack and was bound for Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, a short distance from Iran. It is also determined that the chemical that poisoned Slipstone was Caesium-137, which came straight from Chernobyl.
Sam is then sent to infiltrate a shipyard that constructed a ship named the Sogon, which is believed to be the same ship as the Trego. Sam finds a microfiche transparency that tells who supplied the Trego's engines and returns home. The autopsies on the men were completed, a filling in one of their teeth shows that at least one of the men was from the Zagros Mountains in Iran.
Sam is then given an optional mission to Chernobyl, he accepts. But before he goes, he visits to Hong Kong, to investigate the company that supplied the engines. He finds that they have vacated. Fisher eventually finds their equipment in Lo Wu. He scans for data, and then leaves for Chernobyl.
Elena, Sam's escort, gets him inside the Chernobyl area. They stay at Elena's house until nightfall. They leave to meet an elderly man named Alexi. He tells Sam that about 4 months ago, a truck full of civilians and a truck full of soldiers met in the bunker area. The civilians gave a briefcase to the soldiers and then began shooting. One civilian and all the soldiers were killed, and Alexi buried them. He also noted that two civilians were carrying a footlocker full of something unknown.
Sam visits this same area, and through some digging finds a tunnel beneath one of the mounds of dirt and sod. He follows this tunnel to a door, which he goes through. Inside is a large amount of radioactive debris. Sam takes a sample of it by containing it in a tube, and then visits the graves of the soldiers that Alexi dug. He finds that the soldiers that were killed were Asian.
Back at Third Echelon, Fisher insists that there is a greater driving force behind the entire situation. The Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA, Tom Richards, tells them that the President is going to declare Moscow and Kiev responsible for supplying the Caesium-137, whether it was intentional or not.
Grimsdottir notes that she found an IP address inside the hard drive from the computer Sam found in Lo Wu to an ISP, and then to an island called Cezi Maji. According to rumors, Bai Kang Shek disappeared to this island 15 years ago. Grimsdottir also notes that the island has a high amount of security, which according to Sam, is an invitation for him to go.
Sam is briefed, and is told by Lambert there was an incident between the U.S. and Iran in the Gulf of Oman, and that the U.S. is close to war with Iran. Sam completes his infiltration and finds Bai Kang Shek. Unfortunately, he's long dead, freeze dried inside a plastic bag. Fisher meets the CIA agent, whose name is Heng, and asks him what his job is. His job: To feed them information on Kuan-Yin Zhao, one of the most infamous criminals in the world.
With Heng's help, Sam infiltrates Zhao's nerve center in the house, and recognizes a map on the wall, marked with grease pencil, as the Persian Gulf, on the west coastline of Iran. Sam also gets a name from Heng of an Iranian he was going to meet: Ailar Marjani, who lives in Ashgabat. Grimsdottir traces the name, it turns out he used to be the head of Turkmenistan's version of the CIA.
Sam is sent to Ashgabat. He interrogates Marjani, who gives him yet another name, Kavad Abelzada, and then captures Marjani. Zhao's motive is revealed. Zhao's drug, Jagged, had been declared a threat to U.S. security by the President. The U.S, Britain, and Russia worked together to slowly destroy Zhao's empire, killing 23 of his family members that worked in his empire, cutting off money, and other small works. His empire began to crumble.
Sam is then sent to the village of Sarani, Iran, where Abelzada lives. After a risky infiltration of Iran by Osprey, and a complicated entrance of Sarani, Sam confronts Abelzada burning documents in his house. Sam has no choice but to shoot Abelzada to disable him, but misses and kills him. Sam is safely evacuated after grabbing a few of his documents.
One of the documents Sam got from Abelzada reveals that the Iranians have Silkworm missiles on a Cat-14 patrol boat. One is preparing to fire on the U.S. battlegroup. Sam overtakes the boat, and the people on board, along with the boat, are captured and the crisis with Iran is put to an end, as the U.S. and Iran both withdraw.
Zhao is now exposed, and the Chinese government is now informed of his part. Unfortunately, he is nowhere to be found. It is guessed that he is heading to North Korea, so Sam is sent there. Fisher is told that Zhao is most likely heading to a monastery, and is sent after him. His objective is to capture Zhao before the North Koreans can get to him. Fisher finds a seriously injured Heng there, who later dies from his wounds.
Zhao is actually in the U.S, aboard a stolen train with more material from Chernobyl. Sam is dropped onto the train from the Osprey and kills the men aboard, including Zhao.
[edit] Characters
- Sam Fisher: As efficient as he is ruthless, Fisher is a deadly secret agent tasked with espionage, assassination, and theft for the United States against its enemies. He is incredibly adroit and calm, making him the perfect man for the job. He has a strange sense of humor, and he can be kind and warm from time to time.
