0430 - A single red light blinks in the Pentagon. Russia is about to launch a supersecret nuclear attack on China. U.S. forces lurch to DEFCON 3, triggering the emergency evacuation of the government from Washington.
0450 - The U.S. President makes a catastrophic mistake: He orders the Chinese warned of the impending Russian attack.
0505 - Forewarned, the Chinese generate and fire their own missiles at Russia.
0525 - Hundreds of Russian ICBMs rise from their silos and head for the U. S. CINCNORAD declares an Air Defense Emergency, sounding klaxons around the world.
0537 - The eerie hum of the Emergency Broadcast System shatters the calm of a balmy summer evening in an America oblivious to the rapidly unfolding events....
Arc Light is a daringly original novel about the collapse of Russia and the unexpected, terrifying nuclear war that ensues.
As the 20th century draws to an end, missiles rain down on remote airbases all across America. Despite a massive counterattack, the American people vent their outrage on their weak and hapless president, who is impeached in high drama on the floor of the Senate's underground chamber.
Impossible? The Cold War is over, but we still may face the most dangerous event the world has ever known - the breakup of Russia. What Eric Harry has done in this electrifying thriller - the most remarkable debut since Clancy's The Hunt for Red October - is to show us just how frighteningly plausible the scenario actually is.
As the story unfolds scene by scene, in frightening, chilling detail, Harry introduces a rich cast of characters, caught up in the awful drama of a war nobody wanted - or even believed could happen: Greg Lambert, the National Security Adviser to a president whose fatal mistake triggers a war that he cannot control - and will cost Lambert everything he holds dear...; David Chandler, an Army reserve officer, torn away from his home and plunged into combat and unexpected command responsibility...; General Yuri Razov, a senior Russian military commander - and a friend of Lambert's - who is torn between loyalty to his country and his determination to prevent Armageddon...; Melissa Chandler, who experiences the unbelievable horrors of nuclear war at firsthand, alone with her newborn child, and her husband at war...
Generals, ordinary civilians, front-line soldiers, political leaders on both sides, Eric Harry's cast of characters grips the reader as he makes us see the events through their eyes, taking us from a missile silo to the Kremlin, from a nuclear submarine to the President's flying emergency command post, from people fleeing in panic from America's cities to men and women all over the world carrying out their lonely - and in many cases final - duty. Spanning a truly global range, Arc Light takes you into tanks, foxholes and bombers inbound for nuclear war in a stunning, page-turning political thriller.
Just when you thought it was safe to forget about the Bomb, Eric Harry reminds us: it's still there.
