Project Cyclops

Produced by Al Haines









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This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License,

http://creativecommons.org/

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THOMAS HOOVER




"A high-tech launch site, a missing nuke, and Arab terrorists with
nothing to lose . . ."



In the sun-dappled waters of the Aegean, ex-agent Michael Vance pilots
the _Odyssey II_, a handmade replica of the sailcraft of the ancient
hero Ulysses.  Out of nowhere, a Russian Hind gunship with Arab
terrorists at the helm fires upon the tiny ship below.  The terrorists'
destination is a tiny Aegean island where a U.S. aerospace corporation
carefully guards the Cyclops 20-megawatt laser launch facility.  But
the company security force is no match for the firepower of the Arab
invasion and the launch site is quickly overrun.  With helpless horror,
the executives can only watch as renegade technicians convert the
launch vehicle into a ballistic missile that can deliver their stolen
thermonuclear warhead to any city in the U.S.



Left for dead amid the smoking ruins of _Odyssey II_, Michael Vance
washes up on the occupied island - and becomes America's only hope.






BOOKS BY THOMAS HOOVER



Nonfiction

Zen Culture

The Zen Experience



Fiction

The Moghul

Caribbee

Wall Street _Samurai_

     (The _Samurai_ Strategy)

Project Daedalus

Project Cyclops

Life Blood

Syndrome



All free as e-books at

www.thomashoover.info





PROJECT CYCLOPS A Bantam Falcon Book/September 1992



All rights reserved. Copyright (C) 1992 by Thomas Hoover. Cover art
copyright (C) 1992 by Alan Ayers. ISBN 0-553-29520-9 Published
simultaneously in the United States and Canada

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

OPM 0987654321



Grateful acknowledgment is made to reprint from the following: "On
forelands high in heaven" from More Poems from The Collected Poems of
A.E. Housman. Copyright (C) 1936 by Barclays Bank Ltd., Copyright (C) 1964
by Robert E. Symons. Copyright (C) 1965 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, Inc.



KEY WORDS:



THOMAS HOOVER (Author)

PROJECT  CYCLOPS (Novel: Techno Thriller)

Arab Terrorists, Laser, Aegean, Odyssey, Aerospace, Ballastic Missile,
Thermonuclear Warhead, Ulysses, U.S. Navy, Israeli Terrorist, Hind,
Spacecraft, satellite, Pakistan nuclear bomb, mercenaries





PROJECT CYCLOPS





PREFACE



7:22 P.M.



"Keep her above three hundred meters on the approach." Ramirez's hard
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 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, fully 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 mustache 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. All the
same, he felt comfortably at home in this Hind-D helicopter gunship,
the most lethal assault machine ever. Their operation had two
objectives, and the first had just appeared on the bright green cockpit
radar.

It was 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.

"Activate IFF," he ordered, glancing back at the instrument panels.
"They should acquire us on radar within two minutes now."

"IFF on." Salim Khan, the still-brooding Iranian, nodded and reached
for the interrogator/responsor in the panel on his right. They were
using the NATO Identification System, a low-band interrogator, into
which they had programmed the false Israeli Identification Friend or
Foe code.