Book Name : Jack
Ryan 4 - The Hunt for Red October
Author
: Clancy, Tom
No. of Pages
: 606
Summary :
(Taken from Wikipedia)
Marko Alexandrovich Ramius, a Lithuanian who has risen to high levels of trust in the Soviet Navy, intends to defect to the United States with his officers on board the experimental nuclear submarine Red October, a Typhoon-class vessel equipped with a revolutionary stealth propulsion system. The system, described in the novel as an arrangement of pump-jets, is nicknamed the "Caterpillar Drive", and makes sonar detection extremely difficult. The result, immediately apparent to Jack Ryan and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a strategic weapon platform that is capable of sneaking its way into American waters and launching nuclear missiles with little or no warning.
The strategic value of Red October was not lost upon Ramius. Several other factors have spurred his decision to defect, in particular his disillusionment by the death of his wife, Natalia, at the hands of an incompetent doctor who went unpunished because he was the son of a Politburo member. Her untimely death, combined with Ramius' long-standing dissatisfaction with the callousness of Soviet rule and his fear of the Red October's destabilizing effect on world affairs, ultimately exhausts his tolerance for the failings of the Soviet system.
In the beginning of the novel, Ramius kills Political Officer Ivan Putin to ensure that he will not interfere with the defection. In a letter to Admiral Yuri Padorin, Natalia's uncle, Ramius brazenly states his intention to defect, destroying the possibility of return and leaving no option for Ramius and his fellow conspirators but to press on or die. The Soviet Northern Fleet sails out to sink the Red October. The Soviets conduct this operation on the pretext of a search-and-rescue mission, even though it is fairly close to the American coast.
An additional component to the storyline is the uncovering and turning of the Soviet agent codenamed Cassius, a senior aide to a senator in Washingtonby the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and using him to feed false information about the Americans' knowledge and response to the situation. This later becomes an important element in the next chronological book, The Cardinal of the Kremlin, in persuading a top Soviet official to defect to America.
Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, a former U.S. Marine and naval historian turned high-level CIA analyst, flies from London to Langley, Virginia to deliver British Intelligence's photographs of Red October to the Deputy Director of Intelligence. Ryan contacts a friend at the U.S. Naval Academy and finds out that the new construction variations house the "Caterpillar" drive system.
When the silent drive is engaged, the submarine disappears off the sonar of the USS Dallas, a Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine, which was tracking Red October since she put to sea. Putting this information together with the subsequent launch of the entire Northern Fleet, Ryan deduces Ramius' plans. The U.S. high command agrees warily, while also planning for contingencies in case the Soviet Fleet has intentions other than those stated. As tensions rise between the U.S. and Soviet fleets, the crew of the Dallas discover a way to detect Red October. Ryan must contact the Red October's rebellious captain to prevent the loss of the submarine and its decisive technology. Through a combination of circumstances, Ryan becomes responsible for shepherding the submarine — and Ramius — to safety from the pursuing Soviet fleet.
In order to convince the Soviets that the Red October has been destroyed, the United States Navy rescues its crew after Ramius fakes a shipboard emergency. Ramius and his officers heroically stay behind, claiming they are about to scuttle the submarine to prevent it getting into the hands of the Americans. A decommissioned U.S. ballistic missile submarine, the USS Ethan Allen, is blown up underwater as a deception ploy. A depth gauge taken from the main instrument panel of the Red October (with the appropriate serial number) is made to appear as if it was salvaged from the wreckage.
These events succeed in convincing Soviet observers that the Red October has been lost, but a GRU agent masquerading as a ship's cook had hidden behind in the submarine. He realizes what is actually happening, and attempts to destroy the Red October by igniting a missile rocket motor inside a launch tube and incinerating the boat. The agent kills one of Ramius's top officers, and wounds Ramius and a British officer who had boarded the vessel with Ryan. Ryan attempts to persuade the agent to surrender rather than die in the explosion, but the deeply patriotic man refuses. Ryan manages to fatally shoot the agent in the submarine's missile compartment. Ramius orders the missile jettisoned in case the agent had managed to arm it, adding to the deception.
Meanwhile Captain Viktor Tupolev, a Soviet Alfa-class attack submarine commander and former student of Ramius, has been trailing what he at first believes is an Ohio-class submarine. He and his political officer come to realize that it is the Red October, and proceed to pursue and engage it. The two U.S. submarines escorting the Red October are unable to fire due to rules of engagement, and the Red October is struck by a torpedo from the Alfa, but survives. After a tense standoff, Red October rams Tupolev's submarine broadside and sinks it, and the Americans escort Red October safely into the eight-ten dry dock in Norfolk, Virginia. Ramius and his officers are taken to a CIA safehouse to begin their Americanization, while Ryan is commended by his superiors and flies back to his posting in the UK.
