He knew the bullet came from his own pistol and that he had pulled the trigger, but neither of those details registered. The only thing that mattered was that Trish’s death was Harrison’s fault.
Several years ago, when Mixell had been released from prison, Harrison had been on his list of people and institutions upon which to take his revenge. In light of recent events, Harrison had moved to the top and there was a new name on the list: Christine O’Connor, who had convinced Harrison to help track him down.
It left a sour taste in his mouth — that his two best childhood friends were working against him. However, the revenge would be sweet.
Mixell smiled at the thought.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I hope you enjoyed reading Deep Strike!
For those of you who’ve read the first five books in the Trident Deception series, you probably noticed that Deep Strike was a different kind of book. I try hard to ensure each plot is quite different from the others, avoiding the cookie-cutter plot template approach, but the one constant in the first five books has been Christine O’Connor’s involvement. You probably noticed she didn’t have a large role in Deep Strike compared to the previous novels, especially in comparison to the last book, Treason.
As I mentioned in the author’s note in Treason, the plot structure of each book in the Trident Deception series determines which characters play dominant roles, and Christine didn’t have much to do in Deep Strike. Hopefully you enjoyed some of the new characters introduced, including Lonnie Mixell and Khalila Dufour. Unfortunately, thanks to Lonnie, not all of the Trident Deception characters make it to Book 8. (Books 6 to 8, which start with Deep Strike, form a trilogy for the secondary plot theme involving Mixell and his childhood friends, Christine and Harrison, and you’ll note at the end of Deep Strike that there’s a debt to be paid.)
There’s also the Christine — Harrison storyline that’s been running since Book 2 (Empire Rising), with many readers asking: Are Christine and Harrison ever going to get together? Books 7 and 8 will answer that question, secondary, of course, to the main plots in those books. Although in Treason’s author’s note, I said that Deep Strike would make that clear, the necessary chapters ended up on the cutting-room floor; they didn’t fit well with the main plot in Deep Strike, and it ended up being a case of more is less: the extra Christine — Harrison interactions detracted from the overall novel. However, those chapters will be included in the next book, where they fit better.
Finally, the usual disclaimer — some of the tactics described in Deep Strike are generic and not accurate. For example, torpedo employment and evasion tactics are classified and cannot be accurately represented in this novel. The dialogue also isn’t 100 percent accurate. If it were, much of it would be unintelligible to the average reader. To help the story move along without getting bogged down in acronyms, technical details, and other military jargon, I simplified the dialogue and description of operations and weapon systems.
For all of the above, I apologize. I did my best to keep everything as close to real life as possible while developing a suspenseful (and unclassified), page-turning novel. Hopefully it all worked out and you enjoyed reading Deep Strike.
COMPLETE CAST OF CHARACTERS
ROBERT (BOB) TOMPKINS — vice president
KEVIN HARDISON — chief of staff
TOM DRAPAC — secretary of defense
DAWN CABRAL — secretary of state
NOVA CONOVER — secretary of homeland security
THOM PARHAM — national security advisor
GLEN MCGLOTHIN (Captain) — senior military aide
LARS SIKES — press secretary
MARSHALL HILL — United States Ambassador to the United Nations
MEL CROSS — Diplomatic Security Service agent
JILL MERCER — Diplomatic Security Service agent
CHRISTINE O’CONNOR — director (DCIA)
MONROE (MK) BRYANT — deputy director (DDCIA)
PATRICK (PJ) ROLOW — deputy director for operations (DDO)
TRACEY MCFARLAND — deputy director for analysis (DDA)
JAKE HARRISON — paramilitary operations officer (Special Operations Group)
NIZAR MUSSAN — paramilitary operations officer (Bluestone Security)
MAXIM ANOSOV — paramilitary operations officer (Sochi, Russia)
PAT KENDALL — specialized skills officer (National Resources Division)
KHALILA DUFOUR — specialized skills officer (National Clandestine Service)
JOHN KAUFMANN — specialized skills officer (National Clandestine Service)
ASAD DURRANI — collection management officer
JOHN RODGAARD — Director of National Intelligence
JESSICA DEL RIO — National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) supervisor
BILL ANDREA (Vice Admiral) — Commander, Submarine Forces
RICK CURRENT (Captain) — chief of staff
DWAYNE THOMAS (Captain) — operations officer
BEVERLY KING (Captain) — public affairs officer
MARK GRAHAM (Captain) — training officer
JOHN BUGLIONE (Commander) — Commanding Officer
RICK SCHWARTZ (Lieutenant Commander) — Executive Officer
BOB CIBELLI (Lieutenant) — Navigator
ED REESE (Lieutenant) — Weapons Officer
BOB MARTIN (Lieutenant) — Junior Officer
BOB BUSH (Sonar Technician Chief) — Sonar Division Chief
ALEX RAMBIKUR (Sonar Technician Second Class) — spherical array operator
JERRY MASKE (Commander) — original Commanding Officer
JEFF JOHNSTON (Lieutenant) — Weapons Officer
REGGIE THURLOW (Sonar Technician Master Chief) — Chief of the Boat
GEORGE STRINGER (Lieutenant Commander) — Tactical Coordinator (TACCO)
JEFF HANOVER (Lieutenant) — Communicator
MURRAY WILSON (Captain) — Commanding Officer, USS Michigan (BLUE) / USS North Carolina
GIL BOHANNON (General) — Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
TOM BLASZCZYK (Admiral) — Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)
PAT URELLO (Rear Admiral) — Director, Undersea Warfare Division (OPNAV N97)
MIKE BERGER (Captain, USAF) — Reaper pilot
DEE ARDIS (First Lieutenant, USAF) — Reaper sensor operator
MARC MANIS — captain
KIRK MURPHY — first mate
JOHN LOJKO — lead foreman
DAN METZGER — chief engineer