Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a
2004 novel told in the first person by
author
David Michaels. The novel is
based on the video game series
Splinter Cell created by author
Tom Clancy. The series chronicles the adventures
and the stealth actions of the
fictional character Sam Fisher.
After the book was published in 2004,
Raymond Benson announced that he had written
it, using the pseudonym David Michaels. Benson is best known for
being the official author of the
James
Bond series of novels from 1997 to 2002. In 2005, a second
book by Benson was released entitled
Tom Clancy's
Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda. After the completion
of that book, a new author was hired to continue the series under
the same pseudonym.
Plot introduction
Sam Fisher, a special agent, or Splinter Cell, is called upon to
investigate the death of other Splinter Cell agents. He finds ties
to an arms smuggling ring, and their ties to a mysterious terrorist
group known as "The Shadows".
Plot summary
The plot
of the novel takes place in 2004 and concerns an Iranian
terrorist
group called "The Shadows". Led by Nasir Tarighian, it is the goal of
Tarighian to use a weapon of mass destruction codenamed "The
Babylon Phoenix" against the city of Baghdad
as revenge
for the actions taken by Iraq
against Iran
during the 1980s. While there really isn't much benefit to the
group today, Tarighian attempts to sell the scheme to his
organization by claiming that it would also create further disorder
in Iraq and in the Middle East, which
would inevitably cause the people to turn against the "West",
namely the United
States
since Iraq is currently under their watch.
Tarighian, a former "great warrior" during the
Iran–Iraq War and often proclaimed
hero in Iran, hoped that by doing this the Iranian people would
rejoice and urge the Iranian government to invade and conquer Iraq
after the U.S is forced out of the region. Most of the members of
the Shadows disagree with the course of action, feeling that the
result is extremely unlikely and that the scheme is nothing more
than a 20 year-old vendetta by Tarighian to get back at Iraq for
the death of his wife and children during the war.
These members feel the
same effect of destabilization in the region can be achieved by
attacking either Tel
Aviv
or Jerusalem
in Israel
.
The novel also involves a terrorist arms dealing organization named
"The Shop." Headed by Andrei Zdrok, their aim is purely business;
to make money by supplying arms to anyone with money regardless of
race, ethnicity, or religion.
The Shop is one of the few organizations in
the world that is aware of the black-ops division of the NSA
, named "Third
Echelon", which sends covert agents into the world called
Splinter Cells, to exercise the use of a "fifth freedom"; the
freedom to do whatever is necessary to preserve national security
and peace for the United States. The Shop, using their
knowledge and resources, has taken the liberty of assassinating
Splinter Cells whenever possible thus to increase their profit
margin by keeping the shipment of arms from falling into unwanted
hands.
Sam Fisher is deployed by Third Echelon to the Middle East to
uncover the truth about the murder of a Splinter Cell agent and
track down the source of a shipment of arms seized by the Iraqi
police. There he surveys and infiltrates numerous locations
relating to both the Shop and the Shadows, all the while unaware
that the Shop has targeted him and his only daughter, Sarah.
Character histories
- Carly St. John - A cryptographer for Third Echelon, she is
considered brilliant by Fisher. St. John handles most of Third
Echelon's computer-related tasks including network security and
aiding Fisher, when possible, in the field.
- Sarah
Burns - Fisher's daughter. She defies Sam by
taking a vacation to Israel with her
best friend, Rivka Cohen, and her boyfriend, Eli Horowitz.
She is later kidnapped by Horowitz, who has secretly been working
for The Shop. Held hostage as bait to draw Fisher to
Israel where he can be assassinated by The Shop, she is
rescued by her father with the aid of the Shin
Bet.
- Namik Basaran - Namik
Basaran is the head of Akdabar Enterprises in Turkey
and a
supposed informant for the CIA. In truth,
Basaran is Nasir Tarighian, the head of The Shadows. The Shadows is
a terrorist group that formed during the final days of the Iran–Iraq War. Tarighian was at one
point a peaceful man, however, during the war, Iraq bombed his
home killing his wife and children. Since that day, he
sought revenge and has gone to great lengths to get it. Tarighian
aims to use the Babylon Phoenix developed by Professor Mertens to
obliterate Baghdad. His group, however, feels that Baghdad, being a
Muslim city, should not be the target and instead perform a last
minute coup. Tarighian, his bodyguard Farid, and all his loyalists are killed
on the orders of Ahmed Mohammed.
- Reza Hamadan- Reza Hamadan
is an NSA
informant
living in Iran.
Fisher meets with him to gather information on Namik Basaran and
for rest. Once Fisher sets out again, Hamadan lends him his
car.
- Ahmed Mohammed - Mohammed is the second in
command of The Shadows. He is a loyalist of Nasir Tarighian,
however, after Tarighian decides to use the Babylon Phoenix to
target Baghdad, he betrays Tarighian and stages a coup by killing
Tarighian. Mohammed then orders the target changed to Jerusalem.
Mohammed
is prevented and presumably killed during an aerial raid carried
out jointly by the U.S.
, the British
, and the Turkish
airforce.
- Albert Mertens - Professor Mertens is the
engineer who designs the Babylon Phoenix. His work was strongly
influenced by his mentor Gerald Bull and
his Project Babylon "supergun". Mertens allies himself with Mohammed against
Tarighian, saying that attacking Jerusalem is a better tactically idea and would avenge Gerald
Bull, as Mertens is sure the Mossad killed
him. Mertens was presumably killed by the aerial raid on the
Shadows' compound, like Mohammed.
- Andrei Zdrok - Zdrok is the leader of The
Shop, an arms dealing outfit with the goal of making profit by
supplying arms to anyone. Zdrok has supplied Namik Basaran with
arms; however, he quickly turns against Basaran after one of his
warehouses is destroyed presumably by The Shadows, in addition to
The Shadows having decided not to pay for a shipment of arms that
was captured by the Iraqi police. In truth, Sam Fisher destroyed
the warehouse and Third Echelon prevented The Shadow's transaction
from reaching him. After being discovered as the leader of The
Shop, Zdrok was forced to leave behind anything he could not carry
in his own two hands and flee.
- Vlad and Yuri - Vlad and Yuri are assassins
working for The Shop. They were the most trusted of one of the
Shop's masterminds while he was in the KGB
. They
have been hired by The Shop to eliminate the Splinter Cells. They
were told to find Fisher and they used Eli Horowitz to kidnap
Fisher's daughter as "bait". Both are eventually killed by Fisher
and the Shin Bet during a raid on the warehouse where they held
Sarah.
- Eli Horowitz - Horowitz is
Sarah's boyfriend at Northwestern University
in Illinois
. While there he studied music, but was
deported for an expired visa and for
being listed on the terrorist watch list. He has been assigned by
The Shop to kidnap Sarah and deliver her to Vlad and Yuri. He was
ambushed by Fisher, and after the rest of his Shop team was killed,
Fisher was going to kill Eli for endangering Sarah's life, but went
lenient on account of the expression of cowardice on Eli's face
stopped him, so Fisher spared him, and handed him over to the Shin
Bet, who imprisoned him for his crimes.
- Noel Brooks - Brooks is Eli Horowitz's friend
and works for the Shop. He is gunned down by Shin Bet soldiers in
the firefight inside the abandoned warehouse.
- Heinrich Eisler - Eisler is a friend of Albert
Mertens and was Alberts cellmate in prison. He also murdered
Basarain's aka. Tarighian's bodyguard Farid with his knife, which he is very skilled with. Eisler is
presumably killed along with Mertens and Mohammed.
Release details
See also
External links
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