Sphere Of Influence [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Somewhere in America, an Al-Queada terrorist cell has a rocket launcher and some missiles for it. With the death of Osama Bin Laden (treated as fact), Al-Queada has reconstituted itself under new leadership and become a smaller, more efficient terrorist organization. They have learned the ultimate lesson of the terrorist attacks-America was hurt much worse by the economic impact of such actions than by the casualty toll. The terrorists release videotape to the major networks detailing their threat to fire missiles somewhere in the United States. They promise to attack schools, shopping centers, etc. to make the point again that one is ever safe.

Panic grips the nation exacerbated by the twenty four hour seven day a week cable news coverage of the threat. Schools, business, shopping centers, etc. begin to close as the nation's commerce grinds to a halt. For Mark Beamon, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Phoenix Office, the situation is doubly frustrating. Not only is this not his case and that has been made clear by his superiors, he has massive personal problems of his own.

Mark is less than happy with his current role in the FBI. As detailed in the earlier three novels of this series character, Mark Beamon is a loner and does not play well with others. He certainly does not really fit into the model of what an agent is in the currently politically correct version of today's FBI. He eschews office politics and relies on results. About to be fired, arrested and imprisoned for his previous actions, the incoming President saved him from himself. Thanks to having a friend on the White House Staff, he was instead sent to dead-end his career in charge of the Phoenix office. Management is not his thing and as the ongoing office audit makes clear, his talents are better suited to working cases, not people.

Because of his connections to other agents from past cases, Mark begins to get separate but important pieces of information that he is not supposed to have access to. He sees a totally different track to the case and his ideas conflict with his superior's public statements. He begins to suspect that the terrorists have links to organized crime and wonders why the CIA isn't telling all they know. Soon his suspicions prove correct as a fellow agent and long time friend is executed while both are on an undercover operation. Allowed to survive, Mark Beamon begins to work the case from deep undercover using any resources and methods necessary to find not only the rocket launcher but also those responsible inside and outside of government.

This is an extremely complicated novel, which in my summary, I have failed to do justice to. As the really good novels do, it works on many levels with puzzles within puzzles. The players are extremely complicated and multi-dimensional and there are a large number of plot twists. The action is frequently intense and the novel moves forward at a steady clip.

One also has to wonder just how much of this novel is actual fact and not conjecture. Tom Clancy took an active involvement in this author's career from the early stages including helping him get his first novel published titled "Rising Phoenix." Tom Clancy has long been known for his access to highly classified government information and sources and is said to have introduced Kyle Mills to many of the same information resources. One often gets the feeling in reading his novels that Kyle Mills barely fictionalizes many important details. If true in this case, he is providing some very interesting material on the war in terrorism in this very enjoyable thriller.

Gripping and intelligent is where the wheels start to come off on this book. The plot comes down to the threat of a rocket launcher and 3 or 4 missile s smuggled into the United States via Mexico and the vague threat that these might have biological or chemical warheads. This situation puts the public in a deep panic and the economy in a tailspin. Furthermore, the rockets and the launcher are held by separate terrorist cells, and have to come together so that they can launch a rocket with a 12 mile range at a civilian target.

I guess the threat isn't all that credible in my mind. Saddam proved you don't need a fancy launching platform to send SCUD missiles into Israel so why do these terrorist need one? The bad guys never pull off a strike - so why is there such a tremendous panic?

Secondly, the plot has a whole raft of interesting characters. You have Mark Beamon (Mills' burnt FBI agent), a Russian gangster, a CIA nincompoop, a New York wiseguy, and your stock-in-trade fanatical terrorist. There is a lot of potential here, maybe enough for a couple of books.

Thirdly, Beamon goes so far out on a legal limb that the ending defies belief.

With all that said, Mills is a talented writer. The dialogue and story moves along. I just think he needs to recognize the Mark Beamon character has run its course and move on. He has shown us that he can be brilliant, but I think he needs new material.

FBI agent Mark Beamon believes in the existence of such people, and what's more thinks they are linked to the CIA, terrorist organisations, the Mafia and huge drug cartels. When a rocket launcher suddenly appears in the deserts of Arizona or Nevada, a young agent which the disgraced Beamon helped train is put on the case. To help her investigation, Beamon goes underground taking on a persona of a terrorist himself. About there things start to go wrong.

Another agent is killed, the Mafia man Beamon was working for is arrested, and the CIA is stirring trouble with the world's heroin suppliers, trying to distance themselves from the rocket launcher. Beamon then encounters the enigmatic Christian Volkov, perhaps the richest man in the world, perhaps not. To keep his cover, Beamon becomes manager of Volkov's heroin business. As events unfold, Beamon discovers Volkov has far superior intelligence sources than the combined US agencies, commands an enormous underground economy, and despite his criminal interests, is a highly cultured, well meaning person. He also finds the CIA has been hiding a lot of it's dealings from it's own government, and is not in control of heroin trafficking whatsoever.

The story throws up a number of moral dilemmas, like is a crime still a crime if it is committed to prevent a larger crime, or is the policy of "any means necessary" justifiable in conducting a nation's foreign affairs. The conclusion of the story is a little unexpected, but shows one possible solution to these dilemmas.