Rainbow Six (novel)

Rainbow Six (1998) is a techno-thriller written by Tom Clancy. It is Tom Clancy's tenth fictional novel, most of which feature John Clark ("Rainbow Six") and his son-in-law and partner in many missions, Domingo "Ding" Chavez.

Quotes

• Eddie: What's the plan if the opposition just starts shooting out of hand?
  Ding: Tell Louis, two flashbangs at the front door, four more inside, and we blow in like a tornado.
  Eddie: Our body armor–
  Ding: Won't stop a seven-six-two Russian. I know. Nobody ever said it was safe, Eddie.
  • p. 74

• "Oso backs us up, but I don't think we'll have much use for him on this trip." Julio Vega had become their heavy-machine gunner, slinging a laser-sighted M-60 7.62-mm machine gun for really serious work, but there wasn't much use for that now—and wouldn't be, unless everything went totally to hell.
  • p. 78

• One of them came outside and lit a pipe—how very Swiss! Popov thought. The bugger probably climbs mountains for personal entertainment, too.
  • p. 85

• Henriksen: You only use deadly force when necessary—but when it's necessary, you do use it.
• TV Anchor: But who decides when it's necessary?
• Henriksen: The commander on the scene makes that decision, based on his training, experience, and expertise. Then, Henriksen didn't go on, people like you second-guess the hell out of him for the next couple weeks.
  • p. 116

• Popov: It went much as I had expected. They were foolish—really rather amateurish, despite all the training we gave them back in the eighties. I told them to feel free to rob the bank as a cover for the real mission–
  John Brightling: Which was?
  Popov: To be killed.
  • p. 118

• Because of a random event—bad luck. A hell of a thing to tell someone who'd just lost a husband. Cause of death, bad luck.
  • p. 124

• "Thanks, Doc." Chavez hefted the book for weight and headed out the door. The Enraged Outlook: Inside the Terrorist Mind was the title. It wouldn't hurt to understand them a little better, though he figured the best thing about the inside of a terrorist's mind was a 185-grain 10-mm hollow-point bullet entering at high speed.
  • p. 142

• The man had to be tense, Popov knew. Betrayal was how most of the people like Fürchtner got caught, and though Dmitriy was known and trusted by them, you could only be betrayed by someone whom you trusted, a fact known to every covert operator in the world.
  • p. 145–146

• They were either very brave or very foolish to go to that country, Popov thought. [...] Bokassa had killed his way to the top, as had so many African chiefs of state, before dying, remarkably, of natural causes—so the papers said, anyway, you could never really be sure, could you?
  • p. 147

• "We have thought that one through," Hans assured his guest.
  Popov wondered briefly about that. But he'd be surprised if they even boarded an aircraft, much less got it to Africa. The problem with "missions" like this one was that no matter how carefully most of its parts had been considered, this chain was decidedly no stronger than its weakest link, and the strength of that link was all too often determined by others, or by chance, which was even worse.
  • p. 148

• On the way to the range, they passed Chavez, Price, and the rest, coming out with their MP-10s, joking with one another as they passed. Evidently everyone had had a good morning on the range.
  "Ach," Weber snorted, "anyone can shoot at five meters!"
  • p. 151

• These anti-terror groups all looked pretty much the same, but that was to be expected, since they all trained to do the same thing and worked out of the same international manual—first promulgated by the English with their Special Air Service commandos, then followed by the German GSG-9, and then the rest of Europe, followed by the Americans—down to the black clothing, which struck Popov as theatrical, but they all had to wear something, and black made more sense than white clothing, didn't it?
  • p. 198

• Carol Brightling: Who did the takedown?
  George Winston: Well– [...] What did the news say?
  Carol: Local cops, Vienna police SWAT team, I guess.
  George: Well, I suppose they learned up on how to do it.
  Carol: The Austrians? Who'd they learn it from?
  George: Somebody who knows how, I guess.
  • p. 198–199

• "Bear, this is Six," Clark called on the radio.
  "Bear copies, Six, over."
  "We execute in five minutes."
  "Roger that, we party in five."
  • p. 368

• It would forever be regarded as a very bad shot. Half a second later, the 7-mm bullet struck the subject six inches below the sternum.
  • p. 374
  • Note: Here Johnson, a Rainbow sniper, intentionally breaks unit policy by shooting Andre—a hostage-taker who had killed a terminally-ill child while Johnson could not act—in the stomach instead of the heart, killing him slowly instead of instantly.

• Ireland would not turn into a Marxist country, for all their wishes. The list of such nations was very thin now, though across the world academics still clung to the words and ideas of Marx and Engels and even Lenin.
  Fools. There were even those who said that Communism had been tried in the wrong country—that Russia had been too far backward to make those wonderful ideas work. That was enough to bring an ironic smile and a shake of the head.
  He'd once been a part of the organization called the Sword and Shield of the Party. He'd been through the Academy, had sat through all the political classes, learned the answers to the inevitable examination questions and been clever enough to write down exactly what his instructors wanted to hear, thus ensuring high marks and the respect of his mentors—few of whom had believed in that drivel any more than he had, but none of whom had found within themselves the courage to speak their real thoughts.
  It was amazing how long the lies had lasted, and truly, Popov could remember his surprise when the red flag had been pulled down from its pole atop the Kremlin's Spasskaya Gate. Nothing, it seemed, lived longer than a perverse idea.
  • p. 515

• "Joe!" a happy voice said out of his field of vision. He looked up to see a fortyish man with a beaming smile.
  "Patrick!" Popov responded, standing, going over to shake hands. It's been a long time. Very long, as he'd never met this particular chap before, though they exchanged greetings like old friends.
  • p. 521

• "And what will your neighbors think of all this?" Popov asked, with a lighthearted smile. What the hell were these people talking about?
  "What neighbors?" Killgore asked.
  [...] What neighbors? Popov thought again. They could see the roofs of farmhouses and buildings not ten kilometers away, well lit by the morning sun. What did they mean, what neighbors? They spoke of a radiant future with wild animals everywhere, but not of people. Did they plan to purchase all the nearby farms? Even Horizon Corporation didn't have that much money, did it? This was a settled, civilized area. The farms nearby were large prosperous ones owned by people of comfortable private means. Where would they go? Why would they leave? And yet again, the question leaped into Popov's mind.
  What is this all about?
  • p. 722

• "So, then, you understand?"
  Not in the way you mean, sport, Rainbow Six thought, before responding. "Yes, I suppose I do, Dmitriy Arkadeyevich."
  "How did you find my name? Who told you?"
  "Sergey Nikolay'ch and I are old friends."
  "Ah," Popov managed to observe without fainting. His own agency had betrayed him? Was that possible? Then it was as if Clark had read his mind.
  "Here," John said, handing over the sheaf of photocopies. Your evaluations are pretty good."
  Not good enough," Popov replied, failing to recover from the shock of viewing items from a file that he had never seen before.
  • p. 820

• Clark: You get a nap. The rest of the team arrives in about half an hour."
  Ding: "The rest of what team?"
  Clark: Everybody who can move and shoot, son.
  • p. 862

• "We're going to be close to overloading the aircraft," Harrison warned.
  "That's why it's got two engines, son," the Marine pointed out.
  • p. 870

• "This is some place," one voice said. "Look at these trees, man."
  "Yeah, big, ain't they?"
  "What kind of trees?" a third asked.
  "The kind somebody can hide behind and shoot your ass from!" a more serious voice pointed out.
  • p. 879

• "Chavez here, I just dropped two." The excitement of the moment masked the shame of how easy it had been. This was pure murder.
  • p. 889

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Rainbow Six (novel) on Wikipedia