Critical Effect. Don Pendleton

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       INTEL SUGGESTED AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE

      “A radical Arab group like Hezbollah and mercenaries of the Germanic Freedom Railroad working together? It almost seems absurd, and yet all the evidence so far points to it,” Price announced.

      Brognola shrugged. “We just got the data from the computers at the OME in St. Louis, and one of the deceased that ran up against Able Team earlier was positively identified as not only Hezbollah, but a known associate of the Kadils Tarif bin Nurraji sect.”

      “I’d say that’s proof positive,” Price agreed. “So what do you think it means?”

      “Because Burke’s operation has always been small, I think he bit off more than he could chew at this time. I think it ended up costing him every dime he had, and he stole the LAMPs either in the hopes of selling them to the highest bidder, or configuring them for use against some target.”

      “Yes, but what target?”

       Other titles in this series:

       #30 VIRTUAL PERIL

       #31 NIGHT OF THE JAGUAR

       #32 LAW OF LAST RESORT

       #33 PUNITIVE MEASURES

       #34 REPRISAL

       #35 MESSAGE TO AMERICA

       #36 STRANGLEHOLD

       #37 TRIPLE STRIKE

       #38 ENEMY WITHIN

       #39 BREACH OF TRUST

       #40 BETRAYAL

       #41 SILENT INVADER

       #42 EDGE OF NIGHT

       #43 ZERO HOUR

       #44 THIRST FOR POWER

       #45 STAR VENTURE

       #46 HOSTILE INSTINCT

       #47 COMMAND FORCE

       #48 CONFLICT IMPERATIVE

       #49 DRAGON FIRE

       #50 JUDGMENT IN BLOOD

       #51 DOOMSDAY DIRECTIVE

       #52 TACTICAL RESPONSE

       #53 COUNTDOWN TO TERROR

       #54 VECTOR THREE

       #55 EXTREME MEASURES

       #56 STATE OF AGGRESSION

       #57 SKY KILLERS

       #58 CONDITION HOSTILE

       #59 PRELUDE TO WAR

       #60 DEFENSIVE ACTION

       #61 ROGUE STATE

       #62 DEEP RAMPAGE

       #63 FREEDOM WATCH

       #64 ROOTS OF TERROR

       #65 THE THIRD PROTOCOL

       #66 AXIS OF CONFLICT

       #67 ECHOES OF WAR

       #68 OUTBREAK

       #69 DAY OF DECISION

       #70 RAMROD INTERCEPT

       #71 TERMS OF CONTROL

       #72 ROLLING THUNDER

       #73 COLD OBJECTIVE

       #74 THE CHAMELEON FACTOR

       #75 SILENT ARSENAL

       #76 GATHERING STORM

       #77 FULL BLAST

       #78 MAELSTROM

       #79 PROMISE TO DEFEND

       #80 DOOMSDAY CONQUEST

       #81 SKY HAMMER

       #82 VANISHING POINT

       #83 DOOM PROPHECY

       #84 SENSOR SWEEP

       #85 HELL DAWN

       #86 OCEANS OF FIRE

       #87 EXTREME ARSENAL

       #88 STARFIRE

       #89 NEUTRON FORCE

       #90 RED FROST

       #91 CHINA CRISIS

       #92 CAPITAL OFFENSIVE

       #93 DEADLY PAYLOAD

       #94 ACT OF WAR

       Don Pendleton’s

      Stony Man^®

      AMERICA’S ULTRA-COVERT INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

       Critical Effect

       www.mirabooks.co.uk

      Special thanks and acknowledgment to

       Jon Guenther for his contribution to this work.

      CONTENTS

       PROLOGUE

       CHAPTER ONE

       CHAPTER TWO

       CHAPTER THREE

       CHAPTER FOUR

       CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       CHAPTER NINE

       CHAPTER TEN

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       CHAPTER TWELVE

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN

       CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

       CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

       CHAPTER NINETEEN

       CHAPTER TWENTY

       CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

       CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

       CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

       CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

       CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

       CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

       EPILOGUE

Critical Effect

       PROLOGUE

      High above the fertile fields of northeastern France—altitude approximately 24, 223 feet—engines No. 1 and 2 suddenly quit and threatened to send the SOF C-141 Starlifter into a nosedive.

      Only the quick thinking of the two British RAF pilots prevented the giant special-operations cargo plane from plunging to an unforgiving end. Warning alarms and Klaxons screamed through the cockpit. Every circuit board demanded attention. Lights flashed asynchronously as the shimmies nearly shook the crew to death. The pilot and copilot joined hands on the throttle in an effort to coax more power from the remaining pair of engines. The sheer weight of their cargo testified to the futility of the effort.

      Welby Blythe, Group Captain, tuned his radio to the emergency band and issued a Mayday while his copilot, Flight Lieutenant Graham Little, made every effort to control their descent. The joint operations center at NATO’s Northern Command Office