“The Teeth of the Tiger” by Tom Clancy (Prologue – Chapter 4)

The Israeli scout David Gringold was killed by a terrorist group, called Hassan, so having removed a serious threat. As Hassan’s leader Mohammed tried to embody his plan of carryover his people in the US, but could do nothing without any help from the outside. That’s why the group made a deal with the Colombian cartel.

  Meanwhile, a company Hendly Associates (nobody knew its real destination, as officially it was engaged in money transfers, but it had no clients), headed by a former Senator Gerald Paul Hendley, and then Jerome Rounds, became interested in two men: Brian Caruso and Dominic Caruso. Brian was the Captain of The Marine Corps. He did a nice job in Afghanistan for a young officer in his first combat action, when he saved one of his men’s lives. Besides, Brian saved an Agency guy who went into the mountains with him, when they were in ambush. Besides, his language skills were impressive, as his dad was an American citizen (native-born) but his dad came from Italy. So, his father grew up speaking mostly Italian, and a lot of that came down on Brian and his brother. Moreover, both of them took Spanish in high school and college. Dominic was Special Agent of FBI. One day he was looking for a pedophile on a white van, in which a little girl had been kidnapped. The agent found a house, next to which the car was parked, went, but when he saw the girl’s body with her cut throat, realized that he had been late only for an hour. Therefore, he didn’t regret about his future actions: he went to the kitchen, where the murderer was sitting, cocked his leg and kicked the table over. The man grabbed for the butcher knife on the coffee table and even started to rise to his feet. Caruso's finger depressed the trigger of his Smith, sending the first round straight through the subject's heart; two more followed in less than a second. And all this without waiting for the Sheriff’s arrival; and when he came, Caruso outlined a slightly different version of the incident: allegedly, he tripped over the table; the murder saw him, and went for his knife, turned toward him and so, Caruso drew his pistol and shot him. However, the Sheriff knew that balancing on one leg, it was virtually impossible to shot right in the heart.

  The company Hendly Associates needed such people: smart, brave, responsible, not regretting their actions. Besides, they had to deploy together, as Dominic would do most of the heavy lifting on the investigative side; Brian would back him up on the muscle side, and along the way he’d learn to do his brother’s work. Their cover mainly would be as a businessman or a tourist. So, they had to dress neatly, but not like the Prince of Wales; besides, both of them had to let their hair grow out, especially Brian.

    In fact, Hendly Associates was the organization, created for the fight against terrorism; the cover was the remittances. It was gathering intelligence information, but was not part of the governmental system and acted, when the government Agencies could not control the situation. It was the organization where Jack Patrick Ryan, Jr, son of the former President John Patrick Ryan and a graduate of The Johns Hopkins Institute, wanted to work. 

Individual Reading: "The Teeth of the Tiger"; part 1