Out of the Ashes

Tom Clancy's Op-Center is back with this new thriller written by the New York Times bestselling authors of Tom Clancy's ACT OF VALOR and featuring a chilling, ripped-from-the-headlines scenario.

Before 9/11 America was protected by a covert force known as the National Crisis Management Center. Commonly known as Op-Center, this silent, secret mantel guarded the American people and protected the country from enemies. The charter was top secret and Director Paul Hood reported directly to the president. Op-Center used undercover operatives with SWAT capabilities to diffuse crises around the world, and they were tops in their field. But after the World Trade Center disaster, in the interest of streamlining, OP-Center was disbanded—leaving the country in terrible danger.

But when terrorists detonate bombs in sports stadiums around the country leaving men, women and children dead or mutilated, the President executes an emergency order to bring back Op-Center—an Op-Center capable of dealing with the high tech crises of the 21st Century, and there is a lethal one brewing in the Middle East. A renegade Saudi Prince with ambitions of controlling the world’s oil supply has an ingenious plot to manipulate America into attacking Syria and launching a war against Iran. Next, they would ignite a sleeper cell to attack the America homeland, resulting in a bloodbath unlike any other. Only the men and women of Op-Center, using sophisticated technology, realize what is about to be unleashed. Only they have the courage to issue a warning no one wants to hear. But will anyone believe them?

DICK COUCH graduated from the Naval Academy in 1967 and served as a Surface Warfare Officer and SEAL Platoon Commander in Vietnam. Dick has enjoyed a unique relationship with the US Special Operations Command and has been allowed to document the special operations training venues for SEALs, Army Special Forces (Green Berets), Rangers, and Marines. He has been a professor at the US Naval Academy where he taught ethics and is often called on to speak to issues of character, moral battlefield conduct, and training and deployment of American military special operations forces. He lives with his wife Julia in central Idaho.

GEORGE GALDORISI is a career naval aviator. His Navy career included four command tours and five years as a carrier strike group chief of staff. He has written eight books, including (with Dick Couch), the New York Times best seller, Tom Clancy Presents: Act of Valor; The Kissing Sailor, which proved the identity of the two principals in Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous photograph; and over 200 articles in professional journals and other media. He is the Director of the Corporate Strategy Group at the Navy’s C4ISR Center of Excellence in San Diego, California. He and his wife Becky live in Coronado, California.