Hello everyone!
Summer is FINALLY here!
It's slated to get even hotter here than it is right now, and let me tell you, as much as this means a little bit of ingenuity with regards to being on the computer in a room that resembles a sauna without AC running, it's high time. We've had a rough going of it in May when we'd normally already be jamming in our daisy dukes, but May went on holiday and stuck us with a prolonged April instead.
So now, with June in the picture, it's FINALLY WARM.
I had such a fun time the other day when I went into town (on foot) and ended up perspiring because it was hot, and not because I was wearing too many layers to battle the cold outside and then melting once I got into an over-warm shop.
With high temperatures also come high stakes, at least in books if nothing else, and tonight is definitely no exception, but rather the norm for this rule!
Vince Flynn is probably one of my all-time favourite suspense authors, and I really need to sit down and read through his entire Mitch Rapp book series. But since I'm probably going to leave that one for the summer holidays, I picked something else for tonight.
A stand-alone of his, called Term Limits.
That's also on my to-do list!
But for tonight ... Term Limits.
Before we move into the actual review, I'd like to point out that this is FICTION. Highly entertaining fiction, but still fiction. It's also thought-provoking, VERY high stakes, and most of its facts were checked with actual, real life individuals who've done something or other similar to what's described in the book.
The rest is left up to imagination, and humans have proven, time and time again, that our imagination has no limits.
Term Limits begins like a movie would: in a cabin in the woods where there's a man burning stacks of papers in the fireplace. Why is he doing this? What's he up to? Who is he? For the answers to all those questions, you'll pretty much have to keep on reading.
The scene then shifts to Washington, where an important piece of legislation is about to go through the grind of the Capitol. Namely, the POTUS is trying to pass a budget, and tensions are riding high because America is already looking at a black hole in debt, and there's no real sign of the politicians actually putting their money where their mouths are, aka making some significant changes.
The players one has to remember in this book are the President Stevens, his Chief of Staff Stu Garrett and his National Security Advisor Mike Nance, for the White House.
For the senators and congressmen, the important features are Mike O'Rourke and Senator Olson, along with Mike's girlfriend, journalist Liz.
For now, they're our starting point, because Garrett is pretty much doing everything and anything to get the budget passed, including but not limited to blackmail and all-out threats, because if the budget passes, then they can relax for next year's re-election. If not, it'll be a big uphill battle (like the one they're facing now).
O'Rourke tangles with the president a little bit when they try to get him on their side, but Mike says thanks, no thanks, the budget is basically ridiculous so I'm not voting for it.
Still, things might have even gone through if not for what happens during the course of the night.
The three most prominent players in Stevens' administration on the Hill, needed to pass the budget, are killed in the night hours; one's neck gets broken, one gets shot by a sniper, and the third gets a close-up look at a gun before he drops during a morning walk with his dog.
After which, the news rooms receive an astonishing letter: the people responsible for the assassinations come forward and explain they've cut off one head of the snake that is the American political administration. The president has some time to implement ACTUAL changes to his budget, or there will be more deaths on his conscience.
This is not a drill.
Naturally, the FBI gets called in, in the form of Director Roach and Agent McMahon, who scramble to get ahead of these assassins and take things VERY seriously, in comparison to Garrett & Co at the White House who keep spinning lie after lie, attempting to push the FBI out into deep water in case of backlash (so the agency gets it, not the White House), then sort of backtracking and lying some more, and generally just rolling their eyes like, yeah, alright, these guys are dead, but how do we make ourselves look good for the media?
Doesn't work, because the Speaker of the House gets it next, in broad daylight, by sniper, and THEN the all-out stampede starts.
Every politician left in Washington is suddenly afraid for their life, and the FBI is sick and tired of getting thrown under the bus, not to mention that Garrett is taking chunks out of the Secret Service for "failing to do their job" as well.
Note: it's never a good idea to antagonize the people responsible for your protection.
There finally seems to be some headway when Senator Olson proposes both parties meet with the President and take a look at the budget, make some compromises, and try and appease the assassins. Right after burying the dead politicians, of course, at which only Olson and O'Rourke walk behind the caskets since it's a huge security issue.
So the president is headed to Camp David when a warning shot is fired at him, metaphorically speaking: the assassins neatly figure out which chopper is Marine One, box him into a direction of their choosing, and, had they wanted to, get the chance to shoot him out of the sky.
Which is the last straw for Secret Service agent Jack Warch who gives Garrett a smackdown for his verbal tirades and ridiculous ideas that go against any and all security measures.
But that still isn't enough, as Olson explains to Mike and his grandfather, Seamus O'Rourke, because apparently, the budget ISN'T getting changed, just gimmicked so it LOOKS like it'll be changed.
Like, how stupid can people be???
Sadly, this is the part where we say goodbye to Olson as a brazen assassin throws a bomb onto his limo which goes boom. This is also where Mike decides he needs a face-to-face meeting with the assassins, having figured out who's behind them.
Brief story: Commander Scott Coleman used to lead SEAL Team Six before a mission got botched because a senator leaked crucial information that led to an ambush and the death of half the team. Coupled with the fact that Coleman's younger brother was shot in DC by a crack addict because the prisons were too full and the legislation is ridiculous, and you have a recipe for disaster, especially as Mike is the one who lets slip who leaked the mission.
Now though, Mike has an axe to grind with Scott regarding Olson, although Seamus intervenes and says he helped Scott plan the first four assassinations, but Olson wasn't them.
There's a new player in town, and it's time to retaliate.
The assassins send a message that there's a second group around, and CIA director Stanfield is very willing to buy into this, especially as he can see Garrett is nervous, so there's no smoke without fire. Plus, he has his best counter-terrorism expert, Irene Kennedy, working with McMahon on getting files of ex-commandos from the brass (who naturally aren't happy) because they now have a working theory these are disillusioned soldiers.
Things are starting to heat up by the time Mike and Seamus go to chat with an old friend of Seamus' who implicates one Arthur Higgins in this second round of assassinations, saying he's an old spook who was pushed out of the CIA because they'd lost control of him.
Mike and Scott decide, fair enough, and first reconnoiter, then grab Arthur from his heavily-guarded estate, pump him full of truth serum, and get some much-needed and important answers.
This is high crisis mode for Stanfield, however, who knows that Arthur is much too dangerous if left alive. It looks like there was no interrogation when a body pops up, but then Mike delivers a tape to Kennedy and McMahon with the interrogation, and a revelation that Mike Nance and Stu Garrett were in on the whole thing that's been going on behind the president's back to keep things under control.
The assassins demand that the budget actually be made, and Nance and Garrett need to resign, or else.
Or else ... there's always an 'or else'.
At this point, the FBI has made the connection to Coleman through an unusual note on his discharge and his links to the botched operation, so he's under surveillance when Nance makes his bold play and abducts O'Rourke to have his henchman beat him up a little (unlike O'Rourke, who throws his own punches, Nance needs others to do it for him). Liz frantically calls the CIA and Stanfield launches a rescue operation, getting there just in time.
Coleman wants to meet, though, because he's had enough, and he wants Nance to pay.
Stanfield's like, sure, no problem, can you do it with the broken-neck thing you do?
That's the end of Mike Nance, whose death gets covered up as a fall from his horse (side note, as explained in the book and per interviews with real life people, the move of breaking someone's neck looks incredibly easy on screen, but isn't actually THAT easy, and out of the toughest of the tough, a small percentage can actually pull it off; it's safe to say Scott Coleman is dangerous with a capital D).
McMahon is told to quietly let the investigation die, Stanfield wants to brief Coleman and probably recruit him for the CIA, and Liz and O'Rourke are off to Olson's funeral after a brief closure meeting with Stanfield and Roach, while Garrett has resigned and the president is going to be led by different people from there on out.
And remember - just in case anybody asks, you know nothing.
Like Jon Snow.
xx
*image not mine
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