Tom Clancy, Red Rabbit, Berkley Book, 2002, ISBN 0-425-19118-4
Tom Clancy 因為『獵殺紅色十月號』這部寫實軍事與間諜小說而成名， 連帶而竄紅的是被塑造的智慧型英雄 Jack Ryan。 他的許多小說被改編成電影，而主角都是 Jack Ryan， 儼然想要創造美國版本的 007 傳奇。 這部小說 Red Rabbit 雖然出版較晚，但是時期較早， 是 Ryan 還算年輕的時代：30 歲出頭。 在他的個人傳奇當中，屬於『愛國者遊戲』跟北愛恐怖分子對抗， 而後被封為英國騎士 (Knight，需佩劍而保護平民) 之後的下一個英雄事蹟。
故事背景是 1985 吧？就是當時天主教教宗若望保祿二世被刺，受到槍傷的那個時期。 故事大約從行刺的三個月前、蘇聯情報頭子收到一封極富威脅性的教宗宣言開始。 我們沒看到信件內容，但是小說中影射教宗將會強力指責佔領波蘭的蘇聯勢力， 並且將以他的神職聲望帶頭抵抗。 而當時的英美領導人是柴契爾夫人和雷根總統，蘇聯是布里茲涅夫。 小說裡運用歷史事件的後見之明，由主角們大膽地預測蘇聯即將解體， 共產鐵幕的後面沒有當時想像中的超級武力， 而充其量只是一隻病厭厭的紙老虎。
Red Rabbit 的 Red 意指蘇聯的紅色，Rabbit 是中情局 (CIA) 對叛逃投誠者的暱稱。 整部小說的重點就在這位在蘇聯情報局 (KGB) 密碼部門的軍官 Zaitzev 之叛逃歷程， 從他經手 666 專案發現 KGB 可能想要暗殺教宗開始， 啟動了所謂的良知， 然後很技巧地確認某個恰好在美國大使館工作的 CIA 探員有能力幫助他。 其實過程並不緊張，也沒有刻意安排驚險刺激的場面， 一切都順利地按照計畫進行。Clancy 描寫的心理層面比較多。 因此這是一部內心戲的小說，還有 Clancy 著名的「內幕」細節， 譬如他會描述 KGB 總部的內部結構，克里姆林宮的動線階梯等等。
整體而言，這不是一本有娛樂價值的小說。我覺得讀起來蠻無趣的， 但是還是已將近一年的時間陸續讀完了，每每是一次一兩頁那樣慢慢的讀， 將它當作睡前的緩和讀物，也當作是保持英文閱讀習慣的功課之一。
在這部描寫間諜與暗殺的小說裡，我最愛讀的卻是 Ryan 的家庭生活。 當我 30 歲初的時候也恰好有個小家庭，有兩個小小孩。 但是我在那段時間卻沒有機會享受那個家庭。 而這本書伴著我的時期，正是我開始反省自己的生活與生命之際， 因此讀到 Clancy 描寫的年輕夫妻家庭生活，雖然絕非小說的重點， 可能也沒甚麼真正值得參考的價值， 但是不知道 Clancy 自己是否也在這段時間有些自我的內省， 導致他寫出一些看起來不像是例行公式的情節。
以下抄錄幾段文字備用。
... most politicians are like movie stars. They surround themselves with sycophants and yes-men and people to whisper nice shit into their ears---and a lot of them start believing it, because they want to believe it. It's all a great big game to them, but a game where everything is process and damned little of it is product. They're not like real people. They don't do any real work, but they appear to. (p.119)A conscience? Was he supposed to have one of those? But a conscience was something that measured one set of facts or ideas against another and was either content or not. If not, if it found some action at fault, then the conscience started complaining. It whispered. It forced him to look and keep looking until the issue was resolved, until the wrong action was stopped, or reversed, or atoned for. (p.178)While tactics were important, strategy was more so, because strategy was the measure of what you used tactics for, and strategy in this case was supposed to be what was right---transcendentally right. Not just right at the moment, but right for all times---something historians could examine in a hundred or a thousand years and pronounce as correct action. (p.178)He'd rarely slept away from his wife in all the time they'd been married, a rule almost sacred in their marriage. His marriage to Cathy was the anchor to his life, the very center of his universe. (p.389)... but like all clever, tricky people, they inevitably overplayed their hand sooner or later---and the later they did it, the worse they overplayed it. ... Everyone had the capacity for making mistakes. ... The only difference between a wise man and a fool was in the magnitued of his mistakes. To err was human, and the smarter and more powerful you were, the greater the scope of your screwup. (p.492)When you saw something that needed doing, you damned well did it, and you hoped that your senior officers would bless it afterward, because decisive action had saved the day more than once in the history. "it's a lot easier to get forgiveness than permission." ... You just had to apply judgment to your action, and such judgment came with experience---but experience often came from bad decisions. (p.553)血濃於水 Blood is thicker than water. (p.559)Too soon old, too late smart. (p.578)
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