Critical Mass

America plays poker against Russia. But Russia plays chess against America. Russia seems no threat to Cold War victor USA, but knows that America is weak in language skills and cultural awareness of what makes Muslim extremists tick. So the Russian Bear creates a puppet fanatical Islamic terrorist organization, Inshalla, headed by an unwitting stooge, the Mahdi, operating out of an abandoned Soviet armory near Peshawar. The Russians over the years have also, in very small, undetectable shipments, been pre-positioning the makings of atomic bombs for Inshalla and the Mahdi. Now the time has come to detonate at least one of those bombs and frighten the West into hysterical strikes against every nation in the Islamic world. But Russia does not want things to get that far out of hand. The Mahdi will be permitted to set off one bomb, then he will be assassinated. And Russia will appear a peacemaker in a world about to go to religious war. *****Thus states Whitley Strieber's 2009 novel, CRITICAL MASS. Yes, America is woefully under-protected. Yes, its intelligence agencies have been infiltrated by Inshalla, perhaps even including the Secret Service guarding the President. One fanatical jihadist American Muslim is actually building a bomb in Alexandria, Virginia, only miles from the White House, while working inside American intelligence. ***** Fortunately for America, the Muslim traitor's sister Nabila is an American patriot, although a moderate Muslim. She, too, is a trusted American intelligence operator and linguist. And she was once married to and is still in love with Jim Deutsch. Deutsch is a hands-on sometimes CIA overseas clandestine operator, with blood on his hands. He knows and empathizes with moderate core Islam and has mastered important languages of the Islamic world. Jim gets wind of an atomic weapon having just entered the USA from Mexico at Eagle Pass, Texas (a customs agent there has been bribed by Inshalla). He traces the weapon but not before it detonates over Las Vegas. In the Russian game book, that should end the Mahdi's crusade. But the Mahdi is waiting for the Russian assassins. ***** WIll Jim and Nabila save Washington, D. C.? ***** Will the Pope and all of Rome be destroyed? Certainly, the Pope and the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia are at novel's end busy creating a kind of understanding that is the last thing that either Muslim extremists or the Russians want. *****There you have it: the gist of CRITICAL MASS. It does not pretend to be great literature. It is a fast-moving thriller. Much of your pleasure will be to read the clues and guess what is coming next. The book does make the case for religious moderation and mutual understanding among Muslims and Christians. At the same time it argues that only something as big as a threatened nuclear apocalypse could bring the two competing religions close enough together to promote world peace.-OOO-