Rainbow Six
First edition cover
Author	Tom Clancy
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Ryanverse
Genre(s)	Thriller, Novel
Publisher	G P Putnam's Sons
Publication date	August 1998
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	740 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-399-14390-4 (first edition, hardback) & ISBN 0-425-17034-9 (paperback edition)
Preceded by	Executive Orders
Followed by	The Bear and the Dragon

Rainbow Six is a techno-thriller novel written by Tom Clancy. Thomas Leo Clancy Jr (born April 12 1947) is an American author best known for his technically detailed espionage and Military science storylines The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Ryanverse (or Ryaniverse) refers to the fictional universe created by Tom Clancy featuring Jack Ryan and other characters such as John Clark The thriller is a broad Genre of Literature, Film, Gaming and Television. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of Literature or Information &ndash the activity of making information available for public view G P Putnam's Sons was a major United States Book publisher based in New York City, New York. A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a Book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with Cloth Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a Book by the nature of its binding. Executive Orders is a political and military thriller novel by Tom Clancy. The Bear and the Dragon is a political thriller Novel by Tom Clancy featuring Jack Ryan. Techno-thrillers (or technothrillers) are a hybrid genre drawing subject matter generally from spy thrillers War novels and Science fiction. Thomas Leo Clancy Jr (born April 12 1947) is an American author best known for his technically detailed espionage and Military science storylines It focuses on John Clark, Ding Chavez, and a fictional multi-national counterterrorist unit codenamed Rainbow, rather than Jack Ryan and national politics. John Clark (real name John Terrence Kelly is a Fictional character created by Tom Clancy who appears in many of Clancy's novels Domingo "Ding" Chavez is a Fictional character described as a "passionate Latino" by American author Tom Clancy and appearing in many of his Counter-terrorism or counterterrorism refers to the practices tactics, techniques and strategies that Governments militaries, Police departments Jack Ryan (full name President Sir John Patrick Ryan, PhD, CPA, KCVO) ( May 17 1950- is a Fictional character There is a series of video games by the same name.

Several NATO countries have collectively organized an elite counterterrorist unit, composed of the best soldiers from the militaries of several nations, named Rainbow. The North Atlantic Treaty Based in Hereford, England (real-life home of the 22nd SAS Regiment), the team is led by John Clark (who had the idea for Rainbow), a recurring character in Clancy's novels. Hereford ( ˈhɛrɨfəd is a city, Civil parish and County town of Herefordshire, England. The Special Air Service ( SAS) is a Special forces regiment within the British Army which has served as a model and inspiration for the special For the daytime equivalent see Recurring status. A recurring character is a Fictional character, usually in a Prime time Rainbow is "blacker than black", its American funding directed through the Department of the Interior by Capitol Hill, then through The Pentagon's Office of Special Projects, with no connection whatsoever to the Intelligence Community. The United States Department of the Interior ( DOI) is a Cabinet department of the United States government that manages and conserves most federally Capitol Hill, aside from being a Metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential Neighborhood in Washington D The Pentagon is the Headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. The United States Intelligence Community (IC is a cooperative federation of 16 separate United States government agencies that work together to conduct intelligence Fewer than a hundred people in Washington, D.C. know that Rainbow exists. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D

Title

"Rainbow Six" refers to John Clark, the leader of Rainbow. In American military jargon, "six" refers to the commander of a military unit.

The memo

The following is a transcript of the original memo written by John Clark that led to Rainbow's creation:

There is good news and there is bad news. Memo may refer to Most commonly Memorandum. Memorandum Recordings - record company Memo Tibet With the demise of the Soviet Union and other nation states with political positions adverse to American and Western interests, the likelihood of a major international confrontation is at an all-time low. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings This, clearly, is the best of good news.

But along with that we must face the fact that there remain many experienced and trained international terrorists still roaming the world, some with lingering contacts with national intelligence agencies - plus the fact that some nations, while not desirous of a direct confrontation with American or other Western nations, could still make use of the remaining terrorist "free agents" for more narrow political goals.

If anything, this problem is very likely to grow, since under the previous world situation, the major nation states placed firm limits on terrorist activity-these limits enforced by controlled access to weapons, funding, training, and safehavens.

It seems likely that the current world situation will invert the previous "understanding" enjoyed by the major countries. The price of support, weapons, training, and safehavens might well become actual terrorist activity, not the ideological purity previously demanded by sponsoring nation states.

The most obvious solution to this-probably-increasing problem will be a new multinational counterterrorist team.

I propose the code name Rainbow. I further propose that the organization be based in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The reasons for this are simple:

* The UK currently, owns and operates the Special Air Service, the world's foremost—that is, most experienced—special operations agency. The Special Air Service ( SAS) is a Special forces regiment within the British Army which has served as a model and inspiration for the special

* London is the world's most accessible city in terms of commercial air travel-in addition to which the SAS has a very cordial relationship with British Airways. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. British Airways plc ( is the national Airline and Flag carrier of the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe

* The legal environment is particularly advantageous, due to press restrictions possible under British law but not American.

* The long-standing "special relationship" between American and British governmental agencies. The term special relationship, in diplomacy is used to describe exceptionally strong ties between nations notably by Winston Churchill in 1946 to describe relations between

For all of these reasons, the proposed special-operations team, composed of U. S. , UK, and selected NATO personnel, with full support from national intelligence services, coordinated at site. . .

Plot summary

In a prelude to the story, Clark, Ding Chavez, and Alistair Stanley (a former SAS operative and second-in-command of Rainbow after Clark) are on a plane bound for England. They foil an attempted hijacking of the plane by rather amateurish Basque separatists. The Basques (Euskaldunak are a people who inhabit a region spanning over parts of north-central Spain and southwestern France. Separatism refers to the advocacy of a state of cultural ethnic tribal religious racial or gender separation from the larger group often with demands for greater political autonomy Immediately after the plane lands, the three have to leave before the media arrive, so as to avoid losing the secrecy with which the operation was set up.

A rather long section of the book describes the extreme training that Rainbow personnel go through, building a highly effective and cohesive pair of squad-sized operational units. Soon, a bank in Bern, Switzerland is taken over by would-be robbers led by wanted terrorist Ernst Model. The city of Berne or Bern (, Berne, Berna, Romansh: Berna, Bernese German: Bärn) is the Bundesstadt ( Federal They have taken hostages and already executed one of them. A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security A Rainbow team is deployed to the scene, and after a short standoff, is able to successfully breach the bank and kill the terrorists with no further loss of hostage lives.

Shortly after this incident, Rainbow is again deployed, this time to Austria, where two wanted German terrorists, husband and wife duo Hans Fürchtner and Petra Dortmund, had attempted to kidnap wealthy Austrian businessman Erwin Ostermann. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich While en route to a helicopter to make their getaway, the Rainbow teams are able to ambush and kill them. History Since 400 AD Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys.

In a third incident, in Spain, terrorists take over WorldPark, a fictional amusement park. The terrorists take around thirty children hostage, and demand the release of Carlos the Jackal. Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (born) is a Venezuelan born leftist Revolutionary. Rainbow is again deployed. In an attempt to force the terrorists to surrender, John Clark orders the power to be cut. In retaliation, the terrorists execute a hostage—a terminally ill Dutch girl. Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe an active and Malignant Disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated The Rainbow team manages to eliminate all of the terrorists without further loss of life. (WorldPark may be a reference to PortAventura, a theme park located in Salou, Catalonia, Spain. PortAventura is a Theme park in the Holiday resort of Salou, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, on the Costa Daurada Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. )

The surprising pace of terrorist incidents leads Clark to be suspicious; also, the terrorists involved in each incident are typically older, inactive terrorists not seen in many years. Later, Clark discovers that a retired KGB officer, Col. KGB ( Transliteration of "КГБ" is the Russian abbreviation of Committee for State Security ( Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosty Dmitriy Popov, has been investigating Rainbow, but not soon enough to prevent Popov from having "cased" Rainbow once he figured out who they are.

The cause of the sudden outbreak of terrorism is radical eco-terrorists, who are coincidentally owners of a large and successful biotechnology firm. Eco-terrorism, also called ecoterrorism or green terrorism, is Terrorism committed in support of ecological, environmental, or Biotechnology is Technology based on Biology, especially when used in Agriculture, Food science, and Medicine. They engineer a modified version of the Ebola virus, nicknamed "Shiva"; they also engineer a vaccine for themselves. Ebola is the common term for a group of Viruses belonging to genus Ebolavirus, family Filoviridae, and for the disease which they A vaccine is a biological preparation which is used to establish or improve immunity to a particular disease Their plan is to infect the air conditioning system at the Sydney Olympics, spreading the disease across the world when the infected attendees return home. "I am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever They will then use their firm to distribute further quantities of the disease, disguised as a vaccine, to nearly every person in the world, killing everyone but their selected few, who will rebuild the world in a scientifically and environmentally friendly way. They've hired the ex-KGB officer investigating Rainbow, and instructed him to foment the terrorist incidents Rainbow has so adroitly handled, to increase awareness of terrorism in order to get a security contract for the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. "I am proud and happy to proclaim that you have presented to the world the best Olympic Games ever Sydney (ˈsɪdniː is the most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 4 For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

Later, Popov contracts members of the PIRA to ambush Rainbow on their home territory at Hereford, to remove them from the equation of their impending attack. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Óglaigh na hÉireann ( IRA; also referred to as the PIRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the The PIRA takes several hostages in a hospital, including Chavez's wife and mother-in-law, and ambushes Team One. Rainbow responds by jamming the terrorist's communications and deploying Team Two to clear the hospital and kill the remaining gunman. The PIRA, however, suceeds in its own right; its counterattack is ultimately successful, crippling Rainbow Team One and leaving the way open for the deployment of Shiva at the Olympics.

As a reward, Popov is taken into the eco-terrorists' project, but when he learns of their plans, Popov has a crisis of conscience. He kills a survivalist in the movement named Foster, flees to New York and contacts John Clark directly to stop the plan. Fortunately, Ding Chavez and a few other members of Rainbow are onsite at the Sydney Olympics as security consultants, and are in place to stop the person who was going to infect the stadium's cooling system.

Having failed to destroy civilization with their plague, the eco-terrorists retreat to their refuge in the Brazilian rainforest, which they planned to do anyway, hoping to negotiate a deal to return to the U. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Rainforests are Forests characterized by high Rainfall with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm (68-78 inches S. in a few years. Clark is rather bitter about the fact that these people will likely be able to return to power in a few years because of legal technicalities, and so decides to pursue them to their refuge. Rainbow, under John Clark's leadership, deploys to the rainforest, first killing the terrorists' numerically superior but much less competent militia force, then blowing up the facility and stripping them of all of civilization's aids, including their clothes. The possibility that any of them may return is bleak, as Chavez wryly points out that even with all his equipment and training (Ranger School, among others), he himself would have a tough time surviving in such an environment. The United States Army Ranger School is an intense nine-week-long combat leadership course oriented to small-unit tactics and conducted in three separate three-week-long

In the epilogue, the Horizon Corporation is said to have suffered a major blow with the mysterious loss of its chairman, but was rebounding with a new drug to combat heart attacks, Kardiklear. Popov is living on a ranch in Montana, which he bought from the Foster estate. Montana ( is a state in the Western United States. One-third of the state in the western part contains numerous mountain ranges (approximately 77 named of the northern Just before Popov killed Foster, Foster told Popov that he'd discovered gold on his Montana property but it hadn't meant anything to him in view of the future he was embarking on.

Release Details

• 1998, USA, G P Putnam's Sons ISBN 0-399-14390-4, Pub date ? August 1998, hardcover
• 1998, UK, Michael Joseph Ltd ISBN 0-7181-4336-1, Pub date 27 August 1998, hardback
• 1998, USA, Putnam Pub Group ISBN 0-399-14413-7, Pub date ? August 1998, hardcover (Limited Edition)
• 1998, USA, Demco Media ISBN 0-606-17207-6, Pub date ? September 1998, unbound
• 1998, USA, Random House ISBN 0-375-70324-1, August 1998, paperback (Large Type Edition)
• 1999, USA, Berkley Pub Group ISBN 0-425-17005-5, Pub date ? September 1999, paperback
• 1999, USA, Berkley Publishing Group ISBN 0-425-17034-9, pub date September 1999, mass market paperback