Under Fire (Blackwood novel)
Under Fire (stylized as Tom Clancy Under Fire, Tom Clancy: Under Fire, or Tom Clancy's Under Fire in the United Kingdom) is a political thriller novel, written by Grant Blackwood and released on June 16, 2015. It is the seventh book in the Jack Ryan Jr. series, which is part of the overall Tom Clancy universe, as well as Blackwood's first solo contribution to the franchise. In the novel, Ryan must choose between his country and his mysterious friend Seth Gregory, who is involved in Dagestan's struggle for independence from the Russian Federation. The book debuted at number four on the New York Times bestseller list. Plot summary While on a routine intelligence gathering trip for The Campus in Tehran, Iran, Jack Ryan, Jr. visits his old college friend Seth Gregory for lunch. After their conversation, Gregory leaves with a cryptic comment that “there are steaks in the freezer.” The next day, Ryan is met by Raymond Wellesley of British intelligence and Matthew Spellman, his American counterpart, who tell him that Gregory, who works with them on an intelligence operation, had gone rogue; they warn him to stay away from his old friend. This piques Ryan's interest. Ryan later goes to Gregory's apartment, but is later abducted by an unknown group of men. He manages to escape just as a mysterious woman pulls up in a car to fetch him away from his abductors. The woman introduces herself as Ysabel Kashani, an Iranian national who is also Gregory's college friend. They return to his apartment and retrieve an old document from a safe, which combination was found with “steaks in the freezer”. Ryan and Kashani later go to Azerbaijan, where they are met by Gregory and Spellman. Ryan discovers that his old friend is an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency, and that his father, Paul, was a legend in the CIA until he was branded as a traitor and committed suicide. He further finds out that Gregory is taking part in an intelligence operation with Wellesley and Spellman, which is to facilitate a coup in Dagestan, and that the document he and Kashani retrieved has coordinates for internet hubs to be used during the coup (Gregory's father had originally written the document). However, Dagestani interior minister Rebaz Medzhid, who is being lined up to be Dagestan's president, refuses to participate unless his daughter Aminat, who has been kidnapped, is rescued. Ryan agrees to extract her from her captors in Scotland, and later helps discredit a smear story planted by the Russians against Medzhid about his involvement in atrocities against Dagestanis years ago by rescuing the “witness”, who is being coerced by the Russians. Ryan's boss, Gerry Hendley, sends his cousin Dominic “Dom” Caruso to help him. They later discover that Wellesley plans to sabotage the coup by using armored trucks equipped with Krasukhas that have the ability to jam electronic signals coming from the internet hubs that are to be used in the coup. In addition, he had also