- Flynn, Vince.
Extreme Measures.
New York: Pocket Books, 2008.
ISBN 978-1-4165-0504-4.
-
This is the ninth novel in the
Mitch Rapp
(warning—the article at this link contains minor spoilers)
series and is perhaps the most politically charged of the
saga so far. When a high-ranking Taliban commander and
liaison to al-Qaeda is captured in Afghanistan, CIA agent
Mike Nash begins an interrogation with the aim of uncovering
a sleeper cell planning terrorist attacks in the United States,
but is constrained in his methods by a grandstanding senator
who insists that the protections of the Geneva Convention be
applied to this non-state murderer. Frustrated, Nash calls
in Mitch Rapp for a covert and intense debrief of the
prisoner, but things go horribly wrong and Rapp ends up in
the lock-up of Bagram Air Base charged with violence not
only against the prisoner but also a U.S. Air Force colonel
(who is one of the great twits of all time—one wonders
even with a service academy ring how such a jackass could
attain that rank).
Rapp finds himself summoned before the Senate Judiciary
Committee to answer the charges and endure the venting of
pompous gasbags which constitutes the bulk of such proceedings.
This time, however, Rapp isn't having any. He challenges
the senators directly, starkly forcing them to choose between
legalistic niceties and defeating rogue killers who do not
play by the rules. Meanwhile, the sleeper cell is activated
and puts into motion its plot to wreak terror on the
political class in Washington. Deprived of information
from the Taliban captive, the attack takes place, forcing
politicians to realise that verbal virtuosity and grandstanding
in front of cameras is no way to fight a war. Or, at least,
for a moment until they forget once again, and as long as it
is they who are personally threatened, not their constituents.
As Mitch Rapp becomes a senior figure and something of a
Washington celebrity, Mike Nash is emerging as the conflicted
CIA cowboy that Rapp was in the early books of the series.
I suspect we'll see more and more of Nash in the future as
Rapp recedes into the background.
July 2010 