Rainbow Six (novel)

Rainbow Six is a techno-thriller novel written by Tom Clancy. It focuses on John Clark, Ding Chavez, and a fictional multi-national counterterrorist unit codenamed Rainbow, rather than Jack Ryan and national politics. There is a series of video games by the same name.

Overview

Several NATO countries have collectively organized an elite counterterrorist unit, composed of the best soldiers from the militaries of several nations, named Rainbow. Based in Hereford, England (real-life home of 22 SAS, the UK special forces unit), the team is led by John Clark (who had the idea for Rainbow), a recurring character in Clancy's novels. Rainbow is "blacker than black," its American funding directed through the Department of the Interior by Congress, then through The Pentagon's Office of Special Projects, with no connection whatsoever to the Intelligence Community. Fewer than a hundred people in Washington, D.C. know that Rainbow exists.

Title

The idea for the title comes from the United States Color-coded War Plans, specifically the Rainbow Plans of the 1930s, where Rainbow Five is the last known plan. In these plans, various countries were given a color code, and the Rainbow Plans outlined strategies for dealing with potential conflicts between coalitions of countries. Rainbow Five, for instance, which is discussed extensively in the Plan Dog memo, details several U.S. strategies for America's involvement in World War II. For Rainbow Six, the aggressor is international terrorists. "Rainbow Six" also refers to John Clark, the leader of Rainbow, because "Six" is US military terminology for a unit commander. Additionally, the title symbolizes the multi-national nature of the elite unit. While a rainbow contains many colors, the unit contains many nationalities.

Plot summary

CIA Operation Officers John Clark and Ding Chavez join SAS officer Alistair Stanley in forming an elite, multinational counterterrorist unit. Rainbow consists of a highly effective and cohesive pair of squad-sized operational units, supplemented by SAS intelligence and technological experts. Clark is the commanding officer, while Chavez leads one of the two squads.

Not long after the establishment of Rainbow, a bank in Bern, Switzerland, becomes the site of a hostage situation, eventually determined to be led by wanted terrorist Ernst Model. In an early and desperate show of resolve, the terrorists kill one of the hostages, leading to the Swiss government's request for help from Rainbow. Chavez's Team-2 is deployed to the scene, and disguised as Swiss "Polizei", is able to successfully breach the bank and kill the terrorists with no further loss of hostage lives.

Within several weeks, Rainbow (coincidentally, Chavez's team) is again deployed, this time to Austria, where a group led by known German terrorists, Hans Fürchtner and Petra Dortmund, have taken over the schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman. Their mission is to kidnap the businessman, Erwin Ostermann, in order to obtain "special access codes" to the international trading markets which they believe exist and are held by elite capitalists. The codes, they believe, are the secret to Herr Ostermann's success and affluence and that of his wealthy capitalist peers. Through careful planning and negotiating, the terrorists are persuaded to take their hostages out to a waiting helicopter, presumably to make their getaway. As the terrorists leave the house and make their way to the helicopter, Rainbow's shooters ambush and kill the terrorists. Again, the team was disguised to hide the true nature of Rainbow.

A third incident materializes rather soon after. Terrorists take over Spain's WorldPark, a fictional Disneyland-type theme park, taking thirty five children hostage. They demand the release of Carlos the Jackal, along with a list of other political prisoners. Due to the size and scope of the operation, Rainbow deploys both teams in response. During the stand-off, the terrorists execute a hostage—a terminally ill Dutch girl. Rainbow cannot prevent the execution because their immediate action would have further risked the lives of the other children. The Rainbow team manages to eliminate all of the terrorists without further loss of innocent life.

Clark and the rest of the intelligence community become suspicious about this flurry of activity from older, mostly inactive terrorists. Unbeknownst to them, radical eco-terrorists from biotechnology firm the Horizon Corporation are behind the attacks. Horizon's CEO, John Brightling, hired ex-KGB officer, Dimitriy Popov, to foment the terrorist incidents. The increase in terror attacks helps their security firm land a contract to work the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. From within the Olympic's security apparatus, they plan to launch a sophisticated bioweapon attack intended to wipe out the human race (except for the environmentally responsible conspirators, who are vaccinated against the genetically modified virus).

Learning of the new counterterrorist unit, and fearful of their effectiveness, Popov engages members of the PIRA to ambush Rainbow on their home territory. The PIRA takes several hostages in a hospital — including Clark's wife, and daughter (who is married to Chavez) — and ambushes Team One, wounding and killing some of the team members. Rainbow and the SAS retake the hospital, capturing some of the terrorists alive. Interrogation reveals Popov's involvement in instigating the attack.

Popov is now a wanted man, and Horizon attempts to hide him at their base in Kansas. He is still unaware of his employer's ultimate goal, as he's been mostly operating on a "need-to-know" basis. A survivalist at the Kansas hide-out informs him of the plans just before the end of the Sydney Olympics. Popov kills the survivalist, escapes the compound, and contacts John Clark directly to warn them. Fortunately, Ding Chavez and a few members of Rainbow are at the Sydney Olympics as security consultants and manage to arrest the eco-terrorist who was about to release the bio-weapon.

Having failed to destroy civilization with their plague, the eco-terrorists retreat to their secondary refuge deep in the Brazilian rain forest, hoping to negotiate a deal to return to the U.S. in a few years. Clark knows they may never even be put on trial as the evidence of the plot is easy to cover-up. Clark decides to pursue them to their rain forest refuge with Rainbow under his direct leadership. Clark tracks them to their Brazilian hideout. Rainbow defeats the terrorists' numerically superior but much less competent militia force, and captures the survivors. Their facility and their supplies are destroyed, and they are stripped of even the clothes on their back. Clark taunts them to "reconnect with nature", and leaves them to die.

For his critical assistance, Popov is not charged for his role in the attacks. The Horizon Corporation continues as a legitimate pharmaceutical corporation, without their CEO and the other employees involved in the never revealed plot.

Release details

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