Commander in Chief

by Tom Clancy

In Russia, the silovik, a group of military & intelligence officers and businessmen who basically control the country’s affairs, are concerned about the country’s economic decline. President Valeri Volodin brings up a plan of covert armed conflict within Europe that will ensure the restoration of Russia’s status as a superpower, while at the same time revamping its economy and benefiting the siloviki as a result. Privately however, Volodin tasks a financial expert, Andrei Limonov, with securing his assets worldwide in case his plan does not work.

Weeks later, a string of attacks plague most of Eastern Europe. A Lithuanian oil tanker, the Independence, gets attacked by an eco-terrorist group. A Russian military train transporting men and materiel to Kaliningrad Oblast gets attacked by a Polish terrorist group, which gives Volodin an excuse to increase military presence in the region. Russian submarines begin attacking the Lithuanian Navy, and had torpedoed another oil tanker bound for Estonia. U.S. President Jack Ryan immediately notices a pattern in the recent attacks and the corresponding increase in Russia’s oil profit. He tries to recruit the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s help, but they decline, fearing the consequences of an all-out war. Frustrated, he later deploys the US Navy to dispatch its Russian counterpart.

Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, Jr. is in Rome, Italy, investigating Russia’s money networks as well as spending time with his Iranian girlfriend Ysabel Kashani. He finds out about Limonov and moves to Luxembourg to follow up on his investigation, despite being followed by a paparazzi named Salvatore. Unbeknownst to him, the paparazzi had implanted a tracking device on Kashani's belongings, and the Iranian is later attacked by a group of men led by Russian hitman Yegor Morozov; they are dispatched by Ryan in the resulting altercation. Ysabel is later hospitalized.

Domingo “Ding” Chavez and Dominic “Dom” Caruso are tasked by Director of National Intelligence Mary Pat Foley to photograph specific locations along the Belarusian border. While there, they are asked to escort Pete Branyon, a local CIA station chief in Lithuania, to a meeting with some of his assets. During the meeting, Branyon gets kidnapped; Chavez and Caruso give chase and later rescue him. With help from Lithuanian intelligence director Linus Sabonis, they find out the identity of Branyon’s kidnappers as Serbs who posed as the Polish group that attacked the Russian train in Kaliningrad Oblast.

Distraught about what happened to his girlfriend, Ryan returns to the US and goes on his investigation into Limonov; he finds out that he is in the British Virgin Islands to meet with Terry Walker, inventor of the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, to propose moving eight billion dollars for his client (implied to be Volodin) in and out of Bitcoin with a large commission. Campus operative John Clark is tasked with turning Walker, but finds out that Walker has been coerced into working with the Russians by kidnapping his wife and son, because he had turned down Limonov’s deal due to concern that the deal would draw too much attention to himself. Clark tries to save Walker’s family, but is ambushed by a group of men working for Kozlov, Limonov’s personal bodyguard. Clark was later rescued by Adara Sherman. Together, they rescue Walker and his family and capture Limonov, who later reveals Volodin’s frantic plan to move his assets. Against orders, Ryan tracks down Salvatore to Polish navies over the Russian submarines, and the Russian advance into Lithuania is averted by the Swedish Air Force, who aid the American marines that are being pushed back by the Russian forces.

His diabolical plan in shambles, Volodin is later assassinated by the silovik. Ryan gets suspended from The Campus for not reporting Salvatore sooner and for not following orders.