Dragon’s Paw
By Lloyd Richardson
In the wake of Pakistan’s acquisition of new long-range missile technology from North Korea (via an Islamist Iran), China decides that Pakistan now represents a nuclear threat not just to India but to China itself. To deal with this threat, China invades Pakistan to eliminate the latter’s entire nuclear arsenal—missiles and all. Complications arise as the General commanding the Chinese invasion force decides that he wants to use this occasion to defect to the West, bringing with him valuable information about Chinese assets and ambitions in Central Asia, as well as key data about the current state of Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities. US intelligence agent, Adam Chin, is tasked by the US Secretary of State to travel to India and Pakistan to protect the General from a vengeful Chinese Government that has already signed the General’s death warrant. Chin pursues his objective only to find himself in the middle of a firestorm as China, India and Pakistan all prepare to go to war. Even as he attempts the impossible in India and Pakistan, Chin is caught in political cross-fire in Washington between a weak, vacillating US President who refuses to use the diplomatic and military tools at his disposal to force the Chinese out of Pakistan and keep the peace in the region, and a strong-willed Secretary of State who not only takes her own hard line on China but is also likely to be the President’s principal competition in the next US elections. Chin’s life is further complicated by the beautiful Indian secret agent, Colonel Supriya Lal, a member of India’s elite Defense Intelligence Agency who is supposed to be helping Chin with his mission but who has her own mysterious agenda in Pakistan as well. As the two agents race against the clock, they take on Islamic terrorists intent on capturing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons for their own villainous purposes, as well as treacherous allies ready to betray the two agents for a few rupees. Overhanging all else is the threat of a deadly Chinese Government that will stop at nothing to get what it wants. The plot is drawn from today’s headlines, but the story remains true to the history, geography, and cultures of Central and South Asia.
You can purchase the book online from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Paw-Lloyd-Richardson/dp/1469978792.
eBook formatting by Shelley Glasow Schadowsky.