Welcome back to the Two Navy Guys Debrief, the (mostly) weekly forum where we look at a national security issue and how we have explored that topic in our fiction.
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When you embark on a long deployment in the Navy, there are two ways to approach an extended separation from your loved ones.
The first option is to count down the days right from the beginning, knowing that each day brings you one step closer to home. The second way is to just put home and family in a mental lockbox and focus on the work. Let time pass and try to live in the moment.
Sounds very Zen, right? The only problem with Door #2 is that when you finally do head for home, the padlock on that mental lockbox weakens and you start to count the days with everybody else.
When you get within a week of home, the math changes. You’re no longer three days away from home, you’re “two days and a wake-up.”
Following along with Navy tradition, we are proud to announce that Covert Action will release in one day and a wake-up. By the time you open your eyes on Tuesday morning, your pre-ordered copy will be waiting for you on your Kindle or in your Audible library. If you’re more of an instant gratification sort of person, you can hit the buy button on Amazon on Tuesday morning and have satisfaction of seeing the download automagically appear on your device.
Covert Action, Book 5 of the Command and Control series, will launch in ebook, audiobook, paperback, and HARDCOVER. (Yes, Virginia, there will be a hardcover. That said, fulfillment of the hardcover edition will take a few weeks, so please be patient.)
In our recent column, How to develop and execute a successful series strategy, we gave you a behind-the-scenes look at how we built the Command and Control series, but we didn’t finish the story.
We left off our story with the release of Threat Axis, where we found ourselves at a creative crossroads. Again. In Book 4, we (intentionally) tied up a good number of the storylines that we set in motion at the start of the series.
Why would we do such a thing? Well, we figured Don Riley and his crew were ready for a new challenge—and so were we.
Covert Action is set three years after the end of Threat Axis. These are the initial conditions we set for this next leg of the Command and Control series.
President Serrano’s time in the White House is growing short. For the bulk of his second term, he has worked hard to stay out of foreign entanglements and burnish his domestic agenda. He has a handpicked successor to continue his legacy and the last thing he needs is an international conflict screwing up his master plan.
An expansionist China, with a world-class military and a globally connected economy, is led by an autocrat who has successfully cemented his hold on power for the foreseeable future. He has poured trillions of dollars into the Belt-and-Road Initiative, including the 1000-mile Modern Silk Road connecting western China and Tehran. This project must not fail.
In Russia, President Nikolay Sokolov ousted his autocratic uncle to purse a dream of a democratic Russia. That dream has turned into a nightmare. Nikolay is under siege from all sides and facing his own election in less than a year. Unless he makes big changes, his time in power will end soon. He feels the pull of the Dark Side…can he resist?
These three personalities collide in a new arena: Central Asia, a part of the world with a rich history and an uncertain future.
When we surveyed the world for the setting of our last two novels in the Command and Control series, Central Asia quickly rose to the top of the list.
Although this region is rarely discussed in the US news media, we see real potential for future trouble.
Why? Location, location, location.
These five countries, all with autocratic-leaning leaders and rich in largely unexploited natural resources, exist in a difficult neighborhood. A grasping Russia to the north, a rising China to the east, and southern borders with the notoriously unstable countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.
In our book, China’s Modern Silk Road project has come under attack by a mysterious terrorist organization that has everyone on edge. Worse, the situation is becoming unstable. China rattles her saber, Russia hopes for a strategic opportunity to improve her standing, and the White House just wants it all to stay out of the news…at least until after the election.
Don Riley, newly promoted to CIA Deputy Director of Operations, gets the call from his President to Find, Fix, and Finish this situation before it gets out of control. It just so happens that one of Don’s top guys, Harrison Kohl, is in the region on a personal mission: to find out what happened to his best friend, Tim Trujillo.
[Of course, if you read last week’s column, Read Chapter 1 of our new novel, Covert Action, you already know what happened to Tim—and it was not good.]
Welcome to Covert Action, ladies and gentleman. Please place your tray tables in an upright and locked position and fasten your seatbelt.
It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Be happy. Stay healthy. Read (or listen to) a book.
As always, thanks for being a supporter –
David & JR, AKA the Two Navy Guys
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