No Night As Dark

Dr. David Langwonaire is abruptly taken out of the Immigration and Customs line at the Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, with no explanation. He is interrogated, and confronts his questioner. He is a specialist in island caves around the world. To be approached in this manner means the United States has a problem, and it is in a cave on an island somewhere. Instead of being co-opted, David co-opts the CIA. He confronts the CIA with the mistakes and errors in their rescue plan, and presents an alternative option that involves seven U.S. Navy Seals instead of thirty-two, and a nuclear submarine instead of four helicopters. There then follows a series of adventures to get the rescue team from sub to shore, into the cave, avoid booby traps, kill a sentry (at David’s own hands), and locate the hostages. In conducting the last process, the team discovers that some sort of meeting is being held in the cave that appears to be terrorist groups from around the world. To eliminate these enemies, and also create a major distraction, David sets up a time-delay IED. On the way back to the sub to complete the hostage extraction, David confronts what he interprets as a North Korean officer, shoots him dead, and discovers papers on the body that show a submarine carrying three nuclear weapons. He hypothesizes that those atomic bombs were to be competitively auctioned to the assembled terrorists. Back on board the sub, he must convince the captain that he is sharing ocean space with an enemy, most likely three North Korean submarines as they are diesel, not nuclear vessels. Then a battle at depth takes place, the three bombs are recovered, and the mission has initial success. The final conflict is internal, the official CIA report on the affair is leaked by the White House, which sets off a political firestorm with David in the middle.