Support and Defend
Support and Defend is a novel focusing on Dominic Caruso and The Campus, written by series co-author Mark Greaney. It was released on July 22, 2014.
Publisher's summary
One of Tom Clancy's most storied characters, Dominic Caruso, is the only one who can stop America's secrets from falling into enemy hands in this blockbuster new novel written by Clancy's longtime coauthor.
Plot
Dominic Caruso is in India, staying with the family of Arik Yacoby. Yacoby is Israeli and a former member of the Israeli Defense Force, and is leading Caruso through a six-week training program in martial arts. One night they are out for a midnight run. They return to Yacoby’s home to find that a group of armed men have invaded it. They try to fight them off. One of them who is wearing a suicide vest detonates the vest. Caruso survives but everyone in the Yacobi family is killed.
There is a meeting at the National Security Council. Henry Delvecchio, deputy for regional affairs, tells the staff gathered there that they have reason to believe that the attack on the Yacobis was a result of a recent data breach, and that the staff gathered in the room will all be subjected to a lie detector test in an effort to find the culprit. He also introduces Darren Albright, Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI, to the room as lead investigator in the case. Ethan Ross, deputy assistant director for Near East and North African affairs is there. He knows they are talking about files he took and shared with an international whistleblowing organization called the International Transparency Project (ITP). His girlfriend, Eve Pang, has administrative access to government servers, and he used her access to get the information. He goes to meet his contact with ITP, Harlan Banfield, in a panic. Banfield reassures him that he can help him defeat the polygraph with some prescription drugs and some techniques that he can teach Ross.
Caruso returns to his home in the United States and Albright pays him a visit. After asking Caruso a couple of questions, he commits to keeping Caruso updated on the investigation if Caruso will keep out of it and let him do his job.
Mohammed Mobasheri, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, arrives in the United States. He assembles a team of Iranians with the intent on further exploiting Ethan Ross and the whistleblowing organization Ross is associated with. Mobasheri meets Philip McKell at a motel. McKell is a former systems infrastructure analyst for a government contractor. Mobasheri has promised McKell a large amount of money in exchange for proving a means of scraping the government's servers for classified data. McKell provides a thumb drive with special software on it for performing the task, but instead of paying him, Mobasheri and his men kill McKell.
Ross meets with Banfield again, and this time Gianna Bertoli, the head of ITP is there. They try to convince Ross to do a scrape of the government's servers with a certain device that they provide Ross, as insurance in case the lie detector test doesn’t go well for him. The device was provided by Mobasheri who has infiltrated ITP and who they don’t know works for Iran. While out jogging, Caruso encounters a man that introduces himself simply as David. He is with Mossad and offers to provide Caruso unofficial help in tracking down and exacting vengeance on whoever was responsible for the data breach that resulted in the death of the Yacobis.
Ross takes the lie detector test and raises just enough suspicion in the examiner to call Albright's attention to him. Caruso calls Albright and Albright mentions that he is going to be looking into Ross a little further. Caruso finds out where Ross lives and breaks into his home, looking for evidence against him. When Ross returns home he places a tracker on his car and follows him throughout the day. As he is following Ross, Caruso realizes that other men are following him too. After calling Albright and David, he confirms that the men who are following Ross are neither FBI nor Mossad. Ross returns to his home and Pang is there. She is distraught because the FBI have interviewed her about the data breach, and now she is suspicious of Ross. While arguing they go outside. Mobasheri's men drive by Ross' house and shoot Pang dead. Desperate to get protection from whoever is targeting him, he goes to Pang’s house and uses a virtual private network connection from her computer to do the data scrape. He meets Bertolli and Banfield again and they agree that he should go to the Venezuelan embassy and offer them some of the intelligence from the scrape in exchange for protection and passage out of the country.
Albright receives word that Pang did not show up for work and alerts police to be on the lookout for Ross. Once he gets a tip from police on Ross’ location he has a team of agents follow him. He gets a warrant to search Ross’ home and finds Pang dead there. Meanwhile the agents following Ross get ambushed and killed by the Iranians working for Mobasheri.
Ross arrives at the Venezuelan embassy and Bertoli meets him there. A man with Venezuelan intelligence named Arturo is there and Ross offers him the names of several US agents working in Venezuela in exchange for protection and passage out of the country. Arturo agrees. Bertoli arranges for Mobasheri to go with them and they all fly to a safe house in Panama.
Caruso meets David again. David tells him that the Mossad have tracked Ross to Panama. Caruso calls his boss and head of The Campus, Gerry Hendley, to request permission to go after Ross in Panama. Hendley agrees and sends Adara Sherman to accompany him. They fly down to Panama and get some scuba gear and a boat so Caruso can infiltrate the safe house property by the nearby river. Caruso infiltrates the area and begins his surveillance from the rainforest nearby.
Meanwhile the Russians have learned of Ross and his data scrape through their connections in Venezuela. They send a team of GRU commandos to the safe house to try and capture Ross for themselves. Albright calls Caruso. Albright tells him about the data scrape Ross did and Caruso tells Albright where Ross is. From the cover of the rainforest, Caruso witnesses the Russians parachute in and start to take out the guards on the property. Knowing that the data scrape Ross has needs to be kept out of the Russians’ hands, he tries to sneak into the house and get Ross. A gunfight between the house guards and the Russians ensues and Ross, Bertoli and Mobasheri escape in an SUV. The Russians pursue them. Sherman joins Caruso and together they find a truck and pursue the Russians. Just as the Russians are about to catch up to Ross’ truck, Caruso slams into them with his vehicle. While Caruso and Sherman get in a firefight with the Russias, Ross and the others escape. Caruso and Sherman kill the Russian attackers.
Caruso and Sherman return to the US. Caruso contacts David and they review what information they have so far, which leads them to check into Banfield. Caruso finds Banfield and confronts him. Banfield tells him that Bertoli has likely taken Ross to Geneva, where the world headquarters of ITP is.
Bertoli has arranged for a press conference at the Four Seasons hotel in Geneva where Ross can go public with what they perceive as the abuse of power in the US. But Ross is now suspicious of Mobasheri and has misgivings about any more dealings with ITP. Meanwhile word of the press conference has reached the US, so Albright takes a team of agents to apprehend Ross in Geneva. When Mobasheri realizes that the American agents are moving in, he reveals to Ross and Bertoli his real agenda of getting the data scrape from Ross for the Iranians. He and his security men abduct Ross and Bertoli, loading them in a van and intending to make their way to Libya. Caruso sees them and follows on a motorcycle, keeping Albright apprised of the van’s location by phone. Albright's men catch up to Mobasheri and run the van off the road. But Mobasheri has been in contact with some of the other men in his group who have hijacked a helicopter. Albright's men begin exchanging gunfire with Mobasheri’s men. The helicopter arrives and the Iranians on board kill or wound all of Albright's men. Mobasheri kills Bertoli and gets on the helicopter with Ross. The pilot decides to crash the helicopter in hopes of thwarting the Iranians’ plans. Ross, Mobasheri and some of his men survive the crash and make their way through the snowy forest on foot. They find a chalet and take Ross there, intending to torture Ross for the password to the data scrape. Caruso finds them at the chalet. He is outnumbered and trying to figure out how to keep the Iranians from getting away with the data scrape. Just as Mobasheri begins stabbing Ross with a broken bottle, Caruso snipes Ross. When Mobasheri’s men start firing back at him, he scrambles away. Mobasheri and his men find an SUV and flee the scene.
Sherman calls Caruso and patches him through to the CIA deputy chief of station in Milan. He is able to dispatch a platoon of infantry that has been training in the area to block the road ahead of Mobasheri. Caruso catches up just as Mobasheri is backing away from the roadblock. Caruso fires at the SUV as it goes by, killing the driver. The SUV wrecks and Caruso apprehends Mobasheri and retrieves the data scrape.
Trivia
- Chapter 1 states that Caruso is thirty-two years old.