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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Tale of a Lost Agent,
By
This review is from: Quantico (Paperback)
Quantico (2006) is a standalone SF novel. About a decade from now, the federal government has established several additional security and intelligence agencies duplicating FBI functions. The FBI itself is under Congressional attack. The students in the FBI training facility at Quantico may be the last class.
In this novel, a tall white man is selling tailored anthrax to various terrorist organizations around the world. He tells his clients that the bacteria have been genetically altered to only effect certain groups; in Muslim countries, he claims that the disease only attacks Jews. Some people notice that the man has one green eye and one blue eye. Special Agent Rebecca Rose, of the bioterror group, adds herself to an FBI team investigating the death of an Arizona Highway Patrolman on a lonely desert highway. A tractor trailer has overturned and the load of obsolete inkjet printers has spilled on the road. The burned patrol car is in front of the tractor and facing the wrong way. Rose checks the ditch and finds signs that the killer had crawled up alongside the patrol car before shooting the patrolman. Then he apparently pulled the body away from the car before setting the vehicle aflame, probably to destroy the onboard data. Rose finds a pair of small rocks with blood on them and gives one to the Arizona troopers. Later, Rose finds a discarded glove belonging to the killer and sends it, and the other rock, to the FBI crime lab. William Griffin is a trainee at the FBI Academy. He is failing the Rough-and-Tough shooting course due to his lack of aggressiveness. Agent Instructor Pete Farrow is very reluctant to give him another chance, but does so for the sake of William's father. Special Agent Erwin Griffin is occupying a fire tower overlooking a valley where they suspect the Patriarch is living. Robert Cavitt Chambers had a long record as a bomber, but had dropped out of sight after 1999. He had been in prison for manslaughter, but was released on appeal in 1992 due to an FBI technician who didn't conduct the tests that he said he did. When a Snohomish County, Washington, deputy sheriff investigated a complaint about illegal fireworks, something stirred his memory about the bearded old man at the farm who had answered his questions. Back at the office, he checked the NCIS and NCIC files and discovered an age updated photo of Chambers. When the report reached the FBI, Griffin had secured the fire tower and cut down one blocking tree to get a clear view of the farm. Now Jacob Levine from the Southern Poverty Law Center joins him to confirm the identification. So does Rebecca Rose and Cap Benson of the Washington State Patrol's SWAT team. Once Levine agrees that the suspect is indeed Chambers, the team plans on a way to take the old man with minimum risk to the his family. With four wives, the family extends to over twenty individuals. They decide to wait for Good Friday (by the Julian calendar), when most of the family will be attending church. But headquarters refuses to allow any operation on the holiday (by any calendar) due to the religious ramifications. Griffin decides to conduct a personal surveillance by moseying in as a friendly ex-con needing a little help. He dresses accordingly and even adds a couple of up-to-date, but temporary, prison tattoos to his own collection. Unfortunately, the old man is on to him and has been since the tree was cut down. William Griffin is shipped directly to Seattle when his father is injured severely on Chamber's farm. There he meets Special Agent Rose, receives his credentials, and then is co-opted by Rose in her own investigation of the farm. Later he is taken off garbage detail in New Jersey and transferred to Ohio, where he gets to use his knowledge of the situation at Chamber's farm. In this story, the man with the different color eyes is conspiring with Tommy Juan Battista Juarez, the Amerithrax killer. His anthrax has been bioengineered so as to luminesce red and green while the disease kills its victims; this greatly impresses their clients. But Tommy has bioengineered something else that is much more terrifying than anthrax. Meanwhile, the various federal agencies are having a power struggle. Just as the Secret Service was replaced in 1908 by the FBI as the national investigative service, other federal organizations -- including the Bureau of Domestic Intelligence, ATF Enforcement and even Diplomatic Security -- are now all scrambling to take over the various functions of the FBI. The mysterious BuDark is co-opting agents from all federal crime and intelligence organizations to support activities around the globe. Special Agent Fouad Al-Husam, newly graduated from the FBI Academy, is quickly brought into BuDark because of his Islamic background and language skills. Fouad is immediately tasked with interrogating an Arabic prisoner who had been rendered -- i.e., lent -- to BuDark by Egypt. The prisoner had been tortured beyond any usefulness; Fouad is told that BuDark is trying to get some untouched prisoners. Soon he is flying in an attack helicopter over northern Iraq near the Kurdish zone. This story is a basically a disutopia, extending current trends into a dark future. It is mostly about terrorism of various kinds, but also tells of the effects of corruption upon law enforcement at any level; a few bad cops are not only bad publicity, but bad examples for other policemen. The story also points out the bad effects of dispersed authority in any governmental function; some variety -- e.g., differing intelligence estimates -- is beneficial, but inadequate coordination can be very disruptive. Highly recommended for Bear fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of police procedurals, bioterror and perseverance. -Arthur W. Jordin
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great Start,
By
This review is from: Quantico (Paperback)
Bear had me engrossed through the first 2/3rds of this novel. Then it just faded away. This book is not what we've come to expect from Mr. Bear.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fast-Paced, Exciting Read, but Ending Dissappoints,
By
This review is from: Quantico (Paperback)
This book takes place sometime in the "near future", and covers the exploits of a handful of FBI recruits who find themselves up against a strange combination of internal and external terrorists using advanced biological weapons.
The bulk of the story is interesting, and jumps around between many characters and locales. Unfortunately, the ending is not very believable... FBI agents sent into Mecca during the pilgramige to do special ops work and "save the planet", and at a point where the FBI is described as being on the verge of being eliminated by the current administration? Since I sometimes work with UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles), I was interested in the near-future UAV technology presented in the book - however, I felt that the mini UAVs were given too much advanced capability than is acheivable even in the next 25 years or so. Perhaps the most realistic part of the book involved all the inter-agency fueding and partisan political influences that hampered the agents from doing their jobs efficiently.
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