Set in 1975 during the Cold War, this novel is based on an actual project the US Navy was introducing. This project, known as Outlaw Shark, was designed to give US submarines the capability to effectively attack surface targets at much longer ranges than had ever been possible. The new generation of submarine-launched missiles would extend the attack range beyond the distance at which a submarine could positively identify and locate a target. Rick Halsted is a submarine officer with seven years of service. His ambition is to rise to command of a nuclear submarine, and he's laid out a plan to achieve that goal. His plan is disrupted by orders cancelling his postgraduate school assignment. Instead, he finds himself drawn reluctantly into the naval intelligence community, and tasked with determining whether any civilian employees of a defense contractor are passing highly classified Outlaw Shark information to the Soviets. Posing as a new civilian recently separated from the Navy, Rick becomes an engineer working on the project from which the secrets may be leaking. He's actually holding down two jobs - his engineering job and the counterintelligence task of finding the traitors. The Navy doesn't know all of Rick's real personal history. His background will play a major role in how he solves the espionage problem. Shortly after beginning this task, Rick finds himself falling in love with one of the potential traitors. His search - and his life - are complicated by his lover being one of the people he's investigating. She joins in the effort to find the spies, even though Rick hasn't eliminated her as a suspect. Rick is under constant pressure from his intelligence boss to treat her as a prime suspect. It doesn't take long until a murder forces Rick to realize that someone's playing for keeps in this game. As the romance becomes more serious, an old nemesis of Rick's reappears in his life. Attempting to use this enemy as a tool to find the spies, Rick and his lover find themselves entwined in a life-threatening situation. Rick has to trick this wily adversary to save her life and to keep his career goals within reach. It comes down to a situation where either he or his enemy must die.
About the Author: This is Gerry Young's first fiction book. He was previously published by Prentice-Hall in 1978, as the co-author of Computer-Assisted Business Planning, and as the author of a major chapter to Dennis Chambers's book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Writing Business Plans and Proposals, published by Praeger in 2007. Gerry attended Oregon State University on an NROTC scholarship, graduating in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering. Entering the submarine force upon graduation, he served on four submarines over a five-year period, working at various times as Weapons Officer, Engineering Officer, Senior Watch Officer, and Navigator, in addition to other assignments. After leaving active duty, he remained in the Naval Reserve. As a Reserve officer, he earned a postgraduate diploma with distinction from the United States Naval War College and in 1993 was awarded the VADM John T. Hayward trophy for best performance by a non-resident student. He commanded two Reserve units and retired as a Captain. In 1971, Gerry earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Oregon State University, standing first in his class. He has been the senior or chief financial officer at four companies, and has held responsible positions in finance, strategic planning, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources, and general management. Most of his experience is in telecommunications, starting with Southern Pacific Communications (now known as Sprint) and including six other telecomm companies. He's also worked in transportation, small business consulting, and automotive manufacturing. Gerry has executive experience in the United States and Western Europe. He has taught financial management at the upper-division university level.