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Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a sequel to the first Splinter Cell series video game, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, and is the first Splinter Cell novel to be published. It was written by Raymond Benson, writing under the pseudonym David Michaels. Benson is best known for being the official author of the James Bond series of novels from 1997 to 2002.

In 2005, a second book by Benson was released entitled Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda. After the completion of that book, a new author was hired to continue the series under the same pseudonym. The novel was published on December 7th, 2004, two years after the release of the first game and in the same year of the second Splinter Cell game, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.

The novel is told through first-person narrative (by Sam Fisher in his respective chapters) and then told in third-person for the rest of the chapters, giving it a alternating person narrative. In the novel, Splinter Cell operative Sam Fisher is sent on a mission to investigate the deaths of other Splinter Cell operatives within Third Echelon. Little does he know that the murders of his fellow agents is part of a more elaborate plot involving a mysterious terrorist group known as "The Shadows".

Story Synopsis[]

The story takes place in 2005 and concerns an Iranian terrorist group called "The Shadows" led by Nasir Tarighian. Tarighian's main goal is to use a weapon of mass destruction, codenamed "The Babylon Phoenix", against the city of Baghdad, Iraq, as a revenge for the actions taken by Iraq against Iran during the 1980s. While there really wasn't much of a benefit to The Shadows at the time, Tarighian attempted to sell the scheme to his organization by claiming that it would also create further disorder in Iraq, and in the middle east. This disorder would inevitable cause the people to turn against 'the West', namely the United States, since Iraq was currently under their watch. Tarighian, who is formerly hailed as a 'great warrior' during the First Persian Gulf War (which lasted 1980-1988) and often hailed as a hero in Iran, had hoped that by doing this, the Iranian people would rejoice and urge the Iranian government to invade and conquer Iraq after the U.S. was forced out of the region. After bringing this to the other members of The Shadows, many of them had disagreed with the course of action that Tarighian had planned. They felt that the result of this plan would be very unlikely, stating that the scheme is nothing more than a 20 year-old vendetta by Tarighian to have revenge on Iraq for the death of his wife and children during the Iraq-Iran War. These members that disagreed with Tarighian felt the same effect of destabilization in the Middle East could have been achieved by attacking either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem in Israel.

Meanwhile, the novel also involves a terrorist arms dealing organization named "The Shop", led by a man named Andrei Zdrok. Their aim was purely business: to make money by supplying weapons to anyone with money, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or nationality. The Shop was one of the few organizations in the world that were aware of the secret initiative within the American National Security Agency, named 'Third Echelon.' The Shop knew that they had agents called 'Splinter Cells' that exercises the use of 'Fifth Freedom', the freedom to do anything necessary to preserve national security and peace for the United States. The Shop, using their knowledge and resources, had taken the liberty of assassinating Splinter Cells whenever possible to then increase their profit margin by keeping the shipment of arms from falling into unwanted hands.

Sam Fisher was deployed by Third Echelon to the Middle East to uncover the truth about the murder of a Splinter Cell agent and track down the source of a shipment of arms seized by the Iraqi police. There, he surveyed and infiltrated numerous locations relating to both The Shop and The Shadows, all the while unaware that the Shop had targeted him and his only daughter.

Organizations[]

  • Third Echelon
  • The Shadows
    • Akdabar Enterprises
    • Tirma Association
  • The Shop
    • Russian-Swiss International Mercantile Bank of Zurich, Switzerland
    • Russian-Swiss International Mercantile Bank of Baku, Azerbaijan
    • Russian-Israeli Bank, Jerusalem
    • Container Company of Tarbiz

Characters[]

Third Echelon[]

  • Sam Fisher - Splinter Cell (Protagonist).
  • Irving Lambert - Director.
  • Carly St. John - Technical director.
  • Carl Bruford - 31-year old director of research analysis from Illinois.
  • Chip Driggers - Logistics coordinator in his forties.
  • Mike Chan/Mike Wu - Analyst. Same age as Bruford.
  • Dan Lee - He was a Chinese Splinter Cell operating in China, Macao. He has been killed by The Shop in the Tropical Casino in Macau, while tracking illegal arms sales conducted by The Shop in the Chapter 1.
  • Rick Benton - Splinter Cell, Iraq-Iran. Shot by Yuri in Chapter 2.
  • Marcus Blaine - Splinter Cell, Israel. Killed by Vlad and Yuri in Chapter 14.

The Shop[]

  • Kim Wei Lo - Chief of operations in the Far East. Sam engaged in a fistfight with Wong until Lo draws a gun but accidentally shot and killed Wong when Fisher grabbed him and threw him over the desk. As he then tried to make a run for the door, Fisher snapped his neck, and escaped from his Casino in Chapter 1.
  • † Chen Wong - Lo's bodyguard. Shot by Kim Wei Lo in Chapter 1.
  • Andrei Zdrok - 57-year old leader. Zdrok is a rich banker who owns the Swiss-Russian International Merantile Bank.
  • Anton Antipov - 52-year old coleader.
  • Oskar Herzog - 53-year old coleader.
  • Stefan Prokofiev - 55-year old coleader.
  • Noel Brooks - Rivka's boyfriend. They were together to Northwestern University in Evantson, Illinois. He and Eli were deported from the United States because their visa was no longer valid. They then worked for The Shop for capture Sarah. Noel kills Rivka in the streets of Jerusalem. He was shot by the Shin Bet in the warehouse near Jerusalem, where Sarah was held hostage in Chapter 40.
  • Eli Horowitz - Sarah's 23-year old boyfriend. Sam Fisher had been able to eliminate all the other The Shop members within except Eli, who he seriously want to kill for having kidnapped Sarah. Eli pleaded to Fisher to let him live, and was spared by Fisher because of the cowardice Eli expressed on his face. Afterwards, Eli was captured by Shin Bet agents and taken to trial to account for his crimes; it is unknown what become of him afterwards.
  • Gustav Gomelsky - Assistant Director of the RSIMB. In reality, it's him who leads, as Andrei Zdrok is too busy with the affairs of The Shop. He fears Zdrok, and doesn't know the existence of The Shop.
  • Dimitri Mazur - Pilot of the Su-47. Three hours after Andrei Zdrok ordered him to destroy Akdabar Enterprises, he took off from the warehouse of Obukhov, Ukraine. Mazur dropped eight Kh-29 missiles on the site, destroying it completely. He was then shot down by three F-16Cs, of ​​the Turkish Air Force. However, Mazur was unable to eject from his plane as the ejection seat had been sabotaged by Stefan Prokofiev. The Su-47 is destroyed, and with Mazur still inside, it falls down below to Lake Van, and, as a result, Mazur dies in Chapter 31.
  • † Vlad - Hitman. Killed by "Shin-Bet" in Chapter 40.
  • † Yuri - Hitman. Killed by Sam Fisher's M67 grenade in Chapter 40.
  • Ivan - Prokofiev's man (mentioned only).
  • Erik - Zdrok's driver (mentioned only). He helps Zdrok for emptying these affairs from his office of the Russian-Swiss International Mercantile Bank of Baku after the intrusion of Sam Fisher.

The Shadows[]

  • Namik Basaran/Nasir Tarighian - First leader. His group, however, feels that Baghdad, being a Muslim city, should not be the target and instead perform a last minute coup. Tarighian, his bodyguard Farid, and all his two loyalists are killed on the orders of Ahmed Mohammed. Shot by Albert Mertens in Chapter 37.
  • Ahmed Mohammed - Second leader. He is a loyalist of Nasir Tarighian, however, after Tarighian decides to use the Babylon Phoenix to target Baghdad, he betrays Tarighian and stages a coup by killing Tarighian. Mohammed then orders the target changed to Jerusalem. He is prevented and presumably killed during an aerial raid carried out jointly by the U.S., the British, and the Turkish air force in Chapter 38.
  • Nadir Omar - Chief of the Military Commission.
  • Hani Youssef - Chief of the Finance Commission.
  • Ali Babarah - Chief of the Information Commission.
  • Ziad Adhani - Chief of the Purchasing Commission.
  • Gerald Bull - Creator of the canon Babylon (mentioned only). He was a very active manufacturer and weapons dealer in the 60s, 70s and 80s. He working for the US government for some time before being sent to prison. After his release, he works outside Europe and tied close relationship with Saddam Hussein. He makes many weapons for Iraq. His most famous creation is the canon Babylon that he invent with his assistant, Albert Mertens. He was assassinated in Brussels, Belgium, by the Mossad in 1990.
  • Albert Mertens - Engineer. He is recruited in the organization to work on the "Babylon Phoenix", a modified version of the Babylon Supergun. After sharing a sentiment that Baghdad should not be the target for the Phoenix, he decides to betray his superior, Nasir Tarighian, and instead target Jerusalem. He was likely killed in the airstrike against the facility, minutes after Splinter Cell operative Sam Fisher was able to send pictures of the weapon back to Third Echelon. He is prevented and presumably killed during an aerial raid carried out jointly by the U.S., the British, and the Turkish air force in Chapter 38.
  • † Henrich Eisler - Assistant engineer of the Babylon Phoenix. He is prevented and presumably killed during an aerial raid carried out jointly by the U.S., the British, and the Turkish air force in Chapter 38.
  • † Farid - Tarighian's bodyguard whose tongue was cut out while he was a prisoner in Abu Ghraib during the Iran-Iraq War. Stabbed to death by Henrich Eisler in Chapter 37.
  • Ali Al-Sheyab - The Edentulous. Captured and interrogated along with six other Shadows members in Ali Bazan's trap.
  • Jon Ming - Great Chinese gangster (mentioned only).

Third Echelon allies[]

  • Dirk Verbaken - Benton's contact in Belgium, GISS. He meets Rick Benton in the Hotel Metropole, in Brussels, to give the folder on Gerard Bull. But Vlad and Yuri penetrate into the room: Yuri kills Benton, and Vlad kills Verbaken. They destroy the folder and leave the room in Chapter 2.
  • Dan Petlow - Sam's US Army contact. Lieutenant colonel, forties. He was also the contact of Rick Benton. Using the information of Ali Bazan, he sets up a trap which enables him to capture seven members of The Shadows, including Ali Al-Sheyab, and kills 19 others, allowing him to discover the true face of Nasir Tarighian.
  • Reza Hamadan - Sam's contact in Iran. He holds a carpet shop in Tabriz. He was also the contact of Rick Benton. He lived the first twenty years of his life in the United States, before the fall of the Shah. He frequented a small university in western Texas. The CIA recruits him at the university, to spy in Iran.
  • George Tootelian - Sam's contact at the U.S. Embassy in Baku (mentioned only). Tootelian arranged for Sam to be brought out from Azerbaijan and also arranged a plane to take him to Tel Aviv from Cyprus.
  • Peter Martin - Sam's contact in Cyprus, captain of the British Army. In his thirties.
  • Abraham Weiss - Sam's contact in Israel, captain of Shin Bet. He is the commander of the rescue team who delivered Sarah Burns, taken hostage by Vlad and Yuri. With the help of Sam Fisher, the team kills Vlad, Yuri, Noel Brooks, holds Eli Horowitz and frees Sarah.
  • Marcus - Sergeant of Shin Bet. He is a member of the rescue team who delivered Sarah Burns, taken hostage by Vlad and Yuri. With the help of Sam Fisher, the team kills Vlad, Yuri, Noel Brooks, holds Eli Horowitz and frees Sarah.
  • Ali Bazan - Iraqi informant in The Shadows. Former principal lieutenant of a Shiite imam activist who led a guerrilla war against US troops in Iraq in spring 2004, he now works for the Iraqi government, he established contact with The Shadows, when they wanted to take up weapons that had been confiscated in Arbil. Bazan dupes them by making them believe he was on their side and that the shipment is located in a Kurdish-occupied cave but he gives the attack plan to Dan Petlow. As a result, a six-man Shadows scout group deployed to recon the cave is wiped out, and a 22-minute gun battle between the US ambush platoon and 20 operatives ensues, resulting in 15 dead (including two US soldiers) and the rest of the group captured.

Others[]

  • Sarah Burns - Sam Fisher's daughter. Sarah and her best friend were kidnapped while on vacation in Israel in order to draw out her father. Soon after her best friend was killed, Sam finally discovered where she was being held and saved her.
  • Regan Burns - Sarah's mother and ex-wife of Sam Fisher (mentioned only in Chapter 5). Novel states that Regan died when Sarah was fifteen years old (approximately somewhere between 2000 and 2001).
  • Rivka Cohen - Sarah's best friend. She took Sarah to Israel to visit her family. Later on, Eli Horowitz and Noel Brooks took both she and Sarah out to a bar, where they were both drugged. Sarah was kidnapped and Rivka was strangled to death by Noel and left behind in Chapter 19.
  • Katia Loenstern - Sam's professor of Krav Maga. Although Fisher really liked Katia, he distanced himself because of his work as a Splinter Cell and didn't want to put her in any danger by getting romantically involved with her. Despite not wanting to get close to her, he eventually accepted her request to have coffee together after the Krav Maga lessons.
  • Josh - Krav Maga student. Like Brian, he is an Orthodox Jew and he is afraid that the war reaches to its neighborhood.
  • Brian - Krav Maga student. Like Josh, he is an Orthodox Jew and he is afraid that the war reaches to its neighborhood.
  • Robert Perkins - London policeman. He is on duty the day of the attacks of The Shadows in London. He would ask the truck driver to stop blocking traffic, when it explodes, causing 62 dead and 150 wounded. Killed by explosion in Chapter 4.
  • Blake - London policeman. Blake was on-duty and was ordered by his colleague, Robert Perkins, to go see if the truck on the road was part of a military unit. The truck exploded, killing 62 people and wounding 150 others.
  • Susan Harp - BBC-2 journalist. She working for the news channel BBC-2. She interviewed Namik Basaran after the attacks in London, making 62 dead and 150 wounded.

Locations[]

  • Tropical Casino, Macau, China
  • Hotel Metropole, Brussels, Belgium
  • Sam Fisher's House, Towson, Maryland, USA
  • National Theatre, London, UK
  • City Place Mall, Silver Springs, Maryland, USA
  • US Military Base, Baghdad, Iraq
  • Jerusalem, Israel
  • Police Station, Arbil, Iraq
  • Russian-Swiss International Mercantile Bank, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Eli Horowitz's Apartment, Jerusalem, Israel
  • Reza Hamadan's Store, Tabriz, Iran
  • Irish Bar, Jerusalem, Israel
  • Akdabar Enterprises, Van, Turkey
  • Warehouse near Jerusalem, Israel
  • Russian-Swiss International Mercantile Bank, Baku, Azerbaijan
  • Third Echelon HQ, Washington, DC, USA
  • Commercial Centre, Famagusta, Cyprus
  • Diaper warehouse, Baku, Azerbaijan
  • Obukhov, Ukraine
  • British Military Base, Dhekelia, Cyprus
  • Green Line, Cape Greco, Cyprus
  • Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel

Gear[]

Trivia[]

  • Even though the book shares the same title as the game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, they do not share the same story. Both are separate in terms of story.
  • This book contains the first mention of Sam's deceased ex-wife Regan Burns and his using Krav Maga in the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series. Regan was later mentioned in Double Agent and Conviction, and Krav Maga became an important aspect of Conviction's gameplay.
  • This book has the first specific mention that Third Echelon Headquarters is located within Washington D.C.
  • The exact time frame when the story takes place is unclear. Several lines mention background history which took place during the spring and summer of 2004 (in the northern hemisphere).[1] It cannot take place before the Georgian Information Crisis, as the next book implies that Anna Grimsdottir had been gone during the Far East assignment and Babylon Phoenix Crisis, and her position was filled in by Carly St. John while she was away. Anna was involved during the Georgian Information Crisis. Sam mentions that he had been on assignment in the Far East during the winter, and mentions that "spring has come early this year", and that he didn't have a bad winter, implying the story takes place (or at least begins) in the spring.[2] Eli Horowitz also mentions having an upcoming audition at Juilliard in the summer[3] (which also implies that the story takes place during the spring). Sam also mentions that he is glad that it isn't yet winter in Turkey (implying that point in the story takes place in a pre-winter season).[4] These details imply that the story begins no earlier than spring of 2005, this would force the next novel into late 2005 to early 2006. References in Operation Barracuda mention that it takes place during the winter, the following year (just after Chinese New Year). The book also mentions that the events from the previous book occurred was the last major mission taken by Third Echelon). Sam speaks of an initiative made ​​by the Iraqi government during the summer of 2004. He explained that the action takes place in late March, when he arrives in Turkey. So we can assume that the book takes place in late March 2005. This is an anachronism because Fisher is 47, and more specifically, Sarah can drink alcohol at 21 in 14 months.
  • The third book in the series, Checkmate, is set in 2003, thus takes place before this book (and has Anna Grímsdóttir).
  • In the novel, his MVGs include both night vision goggles and thermal goggles (which is another bit of evidence placing it after the original game). In addition, the goggles include a special fluorescent mode, allowing him to see fingerprints, disturbances, and movement in the dust.
  • Sam drives a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Overland Edition, V8 265 hp.

References[]

  1. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (novel), 168
  2. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (novel), pg, 28
  3. Splinter Cell, pg 83
  4. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, pg 155
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