Project Cyclops
By Thomas Hoover
“Keep her above three hundred meters on the approach.” Ramirez’s stern voice cut through the roar of the 2,200-hp Isotov turboshafts. Down below, the cold, dusk-shrouded Aegean churned with a late autumn storm. “Any lower, and there’ll be the surface effect.”
“I’m well aware of that,” the Iranian pilot muttered, a sullen response barely audible above the helicopter’s noise and vibration. It stopped just short of open disrespect.
Sabri Ramirez did not mind. The two Iranians had been an unfortunate necessity, but in three days, they would be dead. The others, the professionals, were the ones who counted. When he hand-picked the European terrorists now resting on the four litters in the main cabin, he had gone for the best. Each man had a track record and a purpose. Ramirez, however, was the leader, entirely in control. He had planned, financed, and now commanded the operation.
In the ghostly light of late evening, his sleek cheeks, iron-shaded temples, and trim moustache gave no hint of the extensive plastic surgery that had created this, his latest face. He wore a black jumpsuit, like the others, but under his was a $2,000 Brioni charcoal double-breasted-perhaps more suited for a three-star dinner in Paris, at L’Ambroisie or La Tour d’Argent, than the operation at hand. He felt comfortably at home in this Hind-D helicopter gunship, the most lethal assault machine ever. Their operation had two objectives; the first had just appeared on the bright green cockpit radar.
The 2,600-ton U.S. frigate Glover, Garcia class, which the National Security Agency had converted into a Mid-East spy platform. Loaded with missile-tracking and communications-monitoring antennas, it had to go.
Ramirez expected no difficulties. Like the USS Stark, the frigate disabled by Iraqi Exocet missiles in the Persian Gulf in 1988, it was a perfect target. With only one gun, it would be child’s play for a fully-armed Hind.
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Thomas Hoover
Thomas Hoover began his writing career with two classic non-fiction books on Far Eastern art (Zen Culture, Random House, 1977) and religion (The Zen Experience, Penguin, 1980).
Biography.
He then moved into fiction writing with two critically acclaimed novels about English sailors in the early Seventeenth century, one set in India, The Moghul, and one in the Caribbean, Caribbee. Critics have compared his historical novels to those of James Clavell and James A. Mitchner, and his books have twice been optioned for TV mini-series production.
His most recent novels, including The Touchdown Gene, a novel about DNA manipulation, examine topics at the cutting edge of medicine and genetics.
Hoover also acquired a doctorate in oceanography and later served as senior vice president of an architect-engineering firm in New York, where he has lived for several decades. His vices include being an avid sailor and a recognized collector of Indian classical music.
Thomas Hoover
