Option Delta

Marcinko's merry band of violence-loving Rogue Warriors stay true to their rigid format and take-no-prisoners style in this testosterone-drenched seventh Rogue Warrior novel, the followup to Rogue Warrior: SEAL; Force Alpha. The plot begins, as usual, in the middle of a secret mission that breaks every law except Murphy's: American agents are trying to kidnap Prince Khaled Bin Abdullah, who bankrolls terrorists. He's been lured out of hiding by the chance to buy a Soviet nuke. But Dicky and the boys discover that the nuke for sale is actually American--stolen from one of many secret weapons caches the U.S. salted throughout Germany during the Cold War. The Rogue Warriors may have explicit orders to back off, but their duty is clear--they're going to track down the nuke thief (a German industrialist named Lothar Beck) and see that he and his posse get what's coming to them. As usual, the good guys are very good, and the bad guys are not only very bad, but also deformed (Beck is a hunchback), weak-willed (Beck's enforcer Franz Ulrich is a drug addict) and just plain incompetent. Ex-Navy SEAL Marcinko knows weapons and tactics backwards and forwards: the narrator has the breathless seriousness of a drill sergeant, spewing oaths and explaining NOTARs and Delta AH-9s as if not knowing their uses could get us killed: ""I pulled my monocular from my breast pocket, raised it, and twisted the focusing reticule. I knew who these assholes were--you probably can guess, too."" Fans of foul-mouthed full-metal action will eat this up. (Jan.)