When diplomacy has failed and military intervention is deemed inappropriate, our leaders often turn to a silent and dark community for results. This is a course of action not always taken by wise and honorable men. In certain circles it is known as The Third Option Fresh from retaking a battle-scarred White House after a vicious terrorist attack on the president, Mitch Rapp, the CIA's top counterterrorism operative, is sent on his final mission. His target: a well-known German industrialist who has been selling highly sensitive equipment to one of the world's most notorious sponsors of terrorism. As Rapp meticulously prepares to take the man out, he has no idea that there are forces within his own government that are plotting to use him. Thomas Stansfield, the aged director of the CIA, is dying of cancer -- and he and the president have chosen as his successor Dr.
