JOHN MCNEIL (Commander) — SEAL Team Commander
JAKE HARRISON (Lieutenant) — SEAL Platoon Officer-in-Charge
BOB ACOR (Lieutenant) — SEAL Platoon Officer-in-Charge
JOE ALEO (Commander) — SEAL Team Medical Officer
JEFF STONE (Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief)
RICHARD MENDELSON (Special Warfare Operator First Class)
TUCK ROSENBERRY (Special Warfare Operator Second Class)
ROB MAYDWELL (Special Warfare Operator First Class)
BILL STIGERS (Special Warfare Operator Second Class)
TONY RODRIGUES (Special Warfare Operator First Class)
WAYNE BROWN (Special Warfare Operator Second Class)
ROBERT LEE (Special Warfare Operator First Class)
BRIAN ARRINGTON (Special Warfare Operator Second Class)
BRITT SKOGSTAD (Commander) — Commanding Officer
TOM MARTIN (Lieutenant) — Weapons Officer
ANDREW WELLS (Lieutenant) — Junior Officer
JOE MARTIN (Captain) — Delta Force team leader
KURT WISE (Captain)—1st Armored Division aide
CAROLE GLOVER (Major) — B-2 bomber pilot
BILL HOUSTON (Captain) — B-2 bomber co-pilot
JESSICA CHERRY — Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
MARK JOHNSON — Russian translator (American embassy)
BARRY GRAHAM — aide to the U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation
DIANE TRAWEEK — Clark Curtain Laboratory chief executive officer
JACINTA MASCARENHAS — Clark Curtain Laboratory division director
RICH UNDERWOOD — Clark Curtain Laboratory executive assistant
STEVE KAUFMANN — Clark Curtain Laboratory software engineer
KEITH VIERLING — DavRoc Enterprises hardware engineer
KELLY LYMAN — NCIS special agent
JOE GILILLAND — NCIS special agent
YURI KALININ — president
ANTON NECHAYEV — defense minister
ANDREI LAVROV — foreign minister
SERGEI IVANOV — national security advisor
MAKSIM POSNIAK — director of security and disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
JOSEF HIPPCHENKO — director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR)
ANDREI YELCHIN — President Kalinin’s executive assistant
SERGEI ANDROPOV (General) — Chief of the General Staff
ALEXEI VOLODIN (Colonel General) — Commander-in-Chief, Aerospace Forces
VIKTOR GLUKOV (Colonel General) — Commander-in-Chief, Ground Forces
OLEG LIPOVSKY (Admiral) — Commander-in-Chief, Navy
ANDREI ZOLOTOV (Colonel General) — Commander-in-Chief, Strategic Missile Troops
VLADISLAV GRACHEV (Colonel General) — Commander-in-Chief, Airborne Troops
IGOR KOROBOV (Colonel General) — Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)
LEONID SHIMKO (Admiral) — Commander, Northern Fleet
DMITRY SOKOLOV (Lieutenant General) — Commanding Officer, 4th Guards Tank Division
VIKTOR KARAKAYEV — Director, Federal National Guard Service
ANATOLY MIKHAILOV (Captain Second Rank) — Commanding Officer
ERIK FEDOROV (Captain Third Rank) — First Officer
JOZSEF TRATNYEK (Captain Second Rank) — Commanding Officer
GRIGORY DOMASHEV (Captain Third Rank) — First Officer
BOGDAN GOLOVIN (Captain Lieutenant) — Central Command Post Watch Officer
VAGIT SAVVIN (Colonel) — General Andropov’s aide
PAVEL LEBEDEV (Major) — assigned to Colonel Savvin’s unit
LEONID EGOROV (Major) — assigned to GRU Spetsnaz unit
DANIL VASILIEV — Traktir na Petrovke (tavern) owner
GEORGIY ABRAMOV — Traktir na Petrovke patron
TAMARA LEBEDEV — Krasnodar Krai cabin inhabitant
VASILY LEBEDEV — Krasnodar Krai cabin inhabitant
ANNA ORLOV — Tamara and Vasily’s daughter
RUSLAN ORLOV — Anna’s husband
MAXIM ANOSOV–CIA operative in Sochi, Russia
ANDREI POPOV — GRU chemical interrogator
JOHAN VAN DER BIE — secretary general
SUSAN GATES — United Kingdom prime minister
FRANÇOIS LOUBET — French president
LIDWINA KLEIN — German chancellor
DALIA GRYBAUSKAITĖ—Lithuanian president
ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO — president
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I hope you enjoyed reading Treason!
Treason was a fun book to write, but I did so with some trepidation. The plot structure of each book in the Trident Deception series determines which characters play dominant roles, and Christine O’Connor is forefront in Treason. Although the Trident Deception books don’t have a true main character — the novels use a montage approach featuring Captain Murray Wilson, SEAL Jake Harrison, Christine O’Connor, and the president — if you had to hang your hat on someone, it’d be Christine, because she’s the only one of the four main characters who can move around. Wilson and Harrison are tied to USS Michigan and related SEAL operations ashore, and the president isn’t going to head out on any exciting missions. As a result, much of the Trident Deception story lines are told through Christine’s eyes.
This is problematic, in my opinion, because most military thrillers feature strong male leads, typically Special Forces types, which Christine isn’t. She’s also completely untrained. She’s not a character you’d design as a lead for a military thriller series. The reason for this is that I never intended to publish more than one book. However, when St. Martin’s Press offered to buy The Trident Deception, their first question was — Are you writing a sequel? My answer was — Of course! I threw a proposal together that night and plugged in the characters who survived The Trident Deception, and sent it in. St. Martin’s Press then offered a two-book deal.
So there I was, with a character set ill-suited for sequels, but for which I’ve been contracted for five so far, with many more hopefully to come. Under normal circumstances, a White House staffer like Christine would attend meetings and brief the president, and that’s about it. But that’s pretty boring and readers would soon be flipping past every page Christine appeared on. To keep things exciting, I gave Christine a few useful character traits — she’s impulsive and vindictive — which gets her into situations most people would walk away from. She’s also deadly with a pistol (as long as the target is stationary and inside twenty-five feet) and very athletic, being an Olympic-level gymnast. (Both of my daughters were gymnasts, and I’m amazed at the things they can do.) Neither of those skills came in handy in Treason, although they’ve been useful in previous novels and perhaps will be in future ones as well.
Anyway, this is a long-winded explanation of why Christine O’Connor is featured so heavily in Treason. Primarily, it’s just the way the plot turned out. It also turns out that Christine is the favorite character in the Trident Deception series, based on reader feedback, followed by Wilson. One of the questions I frequently get is — When are Christine and Jake Harrison going to get together? Harrison is married, I remind everyone. However, hold that thought. The next book paves the way, and Harrison’s marriage isn’t going to be dissolved by a simple divorce. (I write thrillers, and courtroom drama doesn’t count.)