By the close of the twentieth century, China had gathered secret information concerning the United States' underwater surveillance and guided-missile technology. How much the sensitive knowledge would impact China's military capabilities was unknown.
Until 2005. The technology is in production in China's new breed of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine sonars, and satellite deep-sea observation systems. The Pentagon and the White House are alarmed. The dragon has stirred.
At the forefront of the new technology is China's new ICBM submarine, Xia III, which may have the capacity to hurl a nuclear warhead clear across the Pacific Ocean and take out an American West Coast city. Beijing has made such threats before, but this time, with the new American technology, they cannot be so easily dismissed.
And Admiral Arnold Morgan, the President's National Security Adviser, isn't going to sit back and wait for it to happen. He dispatches the most lethal hunter-killer submarine in the U.S. fleet, the 9,000-ton ultrasecret Seawolf, deep into the dark, forbidden waters of the China Sea.
The mission bristles with peril, as the Americans prowl through China's territorial waters, listening, photographing, led by the brilliant stealth and cunning of Captain Judd Crocker. Under his steady hand they are able to elude the People's Liberation Navy until, without warning, the most shocking accident occurs due south of Canton. Seawolf is suddenly, catastrophically at the mercy of the Chinese, her crew captive, the $1 billion ship in enemy hands. And if the true identity of Seowolf's executive officer becomes known, the repercussions will cause the biggest confrontation between Beijing and Washington in more than forty years.
Left with few options, Admiral Morgan, at the risk of starting World War III, orders SPECWARCOM to send in the Navy SEALs to rescue the Americans at all costs. It is the biggest Special Forces assault force assembled since the Vietnam War. Their orders as they embark on their journey to a remote Chinese island are brutally straightforward: failure is not an option. Success is paramount for the Pentagon, the Navy, the President, and the United States. Defeat, or even discovery, is unthinkable.
Featuring an ensemble cast that stretches from the very heart of the Chinese High Command to the control rooms of U.S. submarines and the screaming flight decks of giant U.S. aircraft carriers, U.S.S. Seawolf is epic in its sweep, meticulous in its authenticity, and breathtaking in its pacing. It is a terrifying and thrilling novel for our times.
Patrick Robinson is the author of seven international bestselling suspense thrillers, including Nimitz Class and Hunter Killer, as well as several nonfiction bestsellers. He divides his time between Ireland and Cape Cod.
