Synopses & Reviews
With U.S. intelligence agencies wracked by internal power struggles and paralyzed by bureaucracy, the President was forced to establish his own clandestine group--Covert-One. It is only activated as a last resort, when the threat is on a global scale and time is running out.
In northern Uganda, an American special forces team is decimated by a group of normally peaceful farmers. Video of the attack shows even women and children possessing almost supernatural speed and strength, consumed with a rage that makes them immune to pain, fear, and all but the most devastating injuries.
Covert-One's top operative, army microbiologist Colonel Jon Smith, is sent to investigate the attack and finds evidence of a parasitic infection that for centuries has been causing violent insanity and then going dormant. This time, though, it's different. The parasite had been purposely kept alive and crudely transmitted in acts of terrorism. Now the director of Iranian Intelligence is in Uganda trying to obtain this biological weapon to unleash it on the West.
Smith and his team are ambushed and cut off from all outside support just as they begin to suspect that forces much more powerful than the Iranians are in play--forces that can be traced to Washington itself.
Review
"Fast-paced and action-filled, with iconic characters and contemporary themes, the story is a stand-alone-worthy entry in the Covert-One series....Fans of Ludlum and Mills thrillers will find The Ares Decision right on target."--The Free-Lance Star
Review
"Filled with action, intrigue, and a plot that places the team in a spot they may never survive."--The Oklahoman
Review
"Don't ever begin a Ludlum novel if you have to go to work the next day."--Chicago Sun-Times
Review
"The fun...[is] finding out how [our heroes] will manage to overcome a new batch of seemingly insurmountable odds. Fast paced, exciting, and boasting prose that's easier on the eyes than much of Ludlum's own appoint."--Booklist
Review
"Packed with all the classic Ludlum elements...the intricately engineered plot thunders forward at breakneck pace. Bottom Line: Perfectly executed."--PEOPLE on The Altman Code
Review
"Welcome to Robert Ludlum's world...fast pacing, tight plotting, international intrigue."--Cleveland Plain Dealer
Synopsis
The murder of two fellow microbiologists and a bizarre act of ecological sabotage draws Lt. Colonel Jon Smith and the Covert-One Agency into a strange global quest that will lead from the geyser basins of Yellowstone National Park to the exotic Onsan hot spring resorts of Northern Japan and on to the unearthly wastes of Chile's Atacama Desert.
At stake is the Holy Grail of the biological sciences, the Common Universal Ancestor, the origin point of all life on Earth and a potential goldmine for medical science. Smith's investigation leads to South American scientist Dr. Silvestre Alvarado, who is seeking this special universal microbe as a way to prolong life. His goal is human immortality and if he succeeds, mankind, and even the definition of man may be altered beyond recognition, forever.
Supported by Covert-One operative Valentina Metrace and rogue CIA agent Randi Russell, Smith's hunt for Alvarado is thrown off course by a Washington beltway power group determined to penetrate and destroy Covert-One.
Synopsis
In northern Uganda, an American special forces team is decimated by a group of normally peaceful farmers. Video of the attack shows even women and children possessing almost supernatural speed and strength, consumed with a rage that makes them immune to pain, fear, and all but the most devastating injuries.
Covert-One's top operative, army microbiologist Colonel Jon Smith, is sent to investigate the attack and finds evidence of a parasitic infection that for centuries has been causing violent insanity and then going dormant. This time, though, it's different. The parasite had been purposely kept alive and crudely transmitted in acts of terrorism. Now the director of Iranian Intelligence is in Uganda trying to obtain this biological weapon to unleash it on the West.
Smith and his team are ambushed and cut off from all outside support just as they begin to suspect that forces much more powerful than the Iranians are in play-forces that can be traced to Washington itself.
About the Author
ROBERT LUDLUM was the author of twenty-one novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. Ludlum passed away in March 2001.
KYLE MILLS is a New York Times bestselling author of over 10 novels including Rising Phoenix and Lords of Corruption. He lives with his wife in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where they spend their off-hours skiing, rock climbing, and mountain biking.