Holy Terror

"A trip to Italy for Dick Marcinko turns into more than pasta and gondola rides. Nothing and no one is sacred as Marcinko sprays irreverent asides, targeting everything from antiterror wannabes to the nuns who taught him in parochial school. Marcinko entertains, informs, and even finds time to genuflect in his new book." Visiting a NATO conference in Rome, Demo Dick blisters bureaucratic ears with a speech about Europe's vulnerabilities and the need to get serious about terrorism. He caps off his talk with an impromptu demonstration of the threat, unmasking a plot to kill the conferees seconds before it begins - and just in time to play volleyball with a live hand grenade. The action ratchets up from there as the former SEAL commander is shanghaied to Sicily to help investigate the attempted theft of nukes from a U.S. base. Is the Mafia involved? Or is this the work of Saladin, a shadowy extremist trying to step into bin Laden's shoes? A high body count lends credence to both theories, but before Demo Dick can untangle the plot, his firm is hired to track down "shrinkage" in a courier operation in Asia. Since said shrinkage involves data and currency worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Demo Dick anticipates a Rogue-sized finder's fee. But he soon discovers the job is a trap. Lured to a cave filled with outrageously hungry tigers in the Thailand jungle, Demo Dick sucks cat breath before being saved by the beautiful if prickly Trace Dahlgren and veteran Rogue sideman Al "Doc" Tremblay. Marcinko has only escaped the frying pan for the fire; he rides a hijacked jet back to Italy, where Saladin plans to wrap up the plot's loose ends in a bonfire at the center of the Eternal City.