Red Dragon Rising: Shock of War

by Larry Bond, Jim DeFelice

Overview

In Larry Bond's Red Dragon Rising: Shock of War, New York Times bestselling authors Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice imagine a horrifying near-future immersed in global war.

Under secret orders from the President, U.S. Army Major Zeus Murphy sabotages a Chinese invasion fleet on the eve of its assault against Vietnam. But after Murphy and fellow officer Win Christian are trapped behind enemy lines, Christian's erratic behavior gives them away. The pair shoot their way out of a Chinese airport terminal, hijack a bus, then barely escape two truckloads of soldiers before disappearing into the night. Thus starts Zeus Murphy's personal odyssey in the latest installment of the Red Dragon Rising series.

Back in America, President Chester Greene fails to convince Congress that the Chinese invasion of Vietnam is the first step in a plan to rule Asia—and eventually go to war with the U.S. Not even the Pentagon will support the President; top-ranking officers do everything they can to sabotage his orders.

After Zeus and Christian dodge a Chinese armored division and return to Vietnam, Zeus proposes a plan to blunt the tank attack. His commanding officer orders him to stand down. Zeus disobeys in an effort to help the Vietnamese woman he's fallen in love with. Win Christian goes with him to prove he's not a coward…within hours, both men are alone with a company of Vietnamese soldiers on the border, staring down the barrels of Chinese main battle tanks as they drive on Haiphong, starting a countdown to all-out war with the West.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429986670
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/06/2024
Series:	Red Dragon Rising , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	125,427
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

LARRY BOND is the author of numerous New York Times bestselling thrillers, including Cold Choices, Vortex, Cauldron, and The Enemy Within. He previously worked with Jim DeFelice on the Larry Bond's First Team series. A former Naval Intelligence officer, warfare analyst and anti-submarine technology expert, he makes his home in Springfield, Virginia.
JIM DeFELICE is the author of many military thrillers and is a frequent collaborator with Stephen Coonts, Larry Bond, and Richard Marcinko, among other New York Times bestselling authors. His solo novels include Leopards Kill,Threat Level Black, Coyote Bird, War Breaker, and My Brother's Keeper. He lives in New York.

Read an Excerpt

Opportunity1Northwestern Vietnam, near the border with ChinaThe sneeze rushed him out of the dream, squeezing away the black shadows he’d been running through. It didn’t quite wake Josh MacArthur up, however—the second sneeze did that, shaking his body so violently that he knocked over the small radio near his sleeping bag. He rolled over and slipped to the edge of the mattress before the third sneeze, trying to bury his face in his arm to muffle the noise. This was only partly successful, and Josh, worried that he would wake the rest of the team, grabbed the cover of his sleeping bag and stifled the next sneeze, and the next.When he was finally able to take a good breath without sneezing, Josh rose to his knees and crawled to the side of the tent, looking for the small plastic box with his antihistamines. After a bit of patting around he found it, but it was too dark inside the tent to sort through the pills—he carried two types, of similar sizes but different strengths. He wanted the one more powerful at nighttime, not caring that it would make him drowsy.His flashlight had rolled away somewhere when he knocked over the radio, and he couldn’t see it. Finally he decided to go outside and walk to the clearing, where the moonlight might be strong enough for him to tell the difference between the blue and green pills; it would also give him a chance to relieve himself. He grabbed his jeans from the edge of the cot and pulled them on. Remembering the snakes he’d seen during the day, he shook out his boots before putting them on, then took his sweatshirt from the base of his camp bed and went outside.The moist mountain air provoked another sneeze.Josh cursed his sinuses silently and walked over to the open area where they’d made a fire the previous evening. It was reduced to dead ashes now, but there was enough open space for the moon to shine full; he could see not only his hands but the cuts across his palm. He opened the pillbox and sorted through its contents, worried he would sneeze again and spill them in the dirt, where they might be lost forever. Finally he found one he was convinced was green—one of the strong ones—and popped it into his mouth.He swallowed, grimacing at the bitter taste the pill left in his throat. Then he moved toward the bushes and trees a few yards away to find a place to pee.Northwestern Vietnam was not the best place for a man with allergies, but MacArthur hadn’t considered his body’s foibles when he decided on his career as a weather scientist, nor had he thought about it much when he chose his doctoral thesis topic, the impact of rapid climate change on Asian mammals. Vietnam was not only a good place to study his subject; there was actually money available to fund the research, since few scientists wanted to go to such a distant place when there were ample topics in the developed world. These days, one could study the effects of climate change and still sleep in a hotel bed at night.But Vietnam, snakes and all, offered other consolations. The mountains and valleys of the north were breathtakingly spectacular. And while they had been greatly affected by the rapid changes in the world’s weather that had occurred over the last five years, the changes were much more benign, and even beneficial, than those elsewhere.One of the changes meant it was slightly wetter and warmer in February than it ordinarily would have been just five years before. But warmth was relative—MacArthur pulled on his sweatshirt and rubbed his hands together, trying to ward off the chill as he looked for a suitable place to relieve himself.The young scientist had just found a large rock when he heard something pushing through the scrub to his right. He froze with fear.A tiger!Ordinarily they didn’t range quite this far west, but they too had suffered the consequences of climate change, and were expanding their range.What was he supposed to do? Crouch? Freeze? Run? What had he been told during orientation?Before his mind could supply an answer, he heard another sound, this one farther away. There were two, no three animals moving through the brush.A fourth.They couldn’t be tigers. The cats didn’t hunt in packs.But this realization didn’t comfort him. Something was definitely there, moving through the vegetation toward the camp.Thieves?Someone shouted. MacArthur spoke very rudimentary Vietnamese, and what he heard didn’t match with the words he knew.There was another shout, and then a very loud and strange popping noise, a bang that seemed unworldly. The whole mountain shuddered, then flashed oddly white.Then came a noise he did recognize, one he’d heard long ago as a child, a sound that had filled his nightmares ever since—an automatic weapon began rattling behind him, its sound the steady, quick stutter of death. Another joined in, then another and another.Without thinking, without even looking where he was going, Josh MacArthur took off running in the opposite direction, dodging through the thick brush in the moonlight.Copyright © 2009 by Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice