The Negotiator (novel)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''The Negotiator'' is a crime novel by English writer
Frederick Forsyth Frederick McCarthy Forsyth (born 25 August 1938) is an English novelist and journalist. He is best known for thrillers such as ''The Day of the Jackal'', ''The Odessa File'', '' The Fourth Protocol'', '' The Dogs of War'', ''The Devil's Alter ...
, first published in 1989. The story includes a number of threads that are slowly woven together. The central thread concerns a kidnapping that turns into a murder and the negotiator's attempts to solve the crime.


Synopsis

In 1989,
Texan Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...
oil baron Cyrus Miller and shipping tycoon Melvin Scanlon conspire to bring the oil fields of the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
under American control. Meanwhile,
United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United State ...
John Cormack and his
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
counterpart
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
draw up plans for a $100 billion arms reduction bill – the "
Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...
Treaty". This proves debilitating for Miller and Scanlon's plans, so they team up with three arms manufacturers who will be financially ruined by the treaty and hire
mercenary A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...
Irving Moss, a sexual sadist and ex-
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
officer recently released from prison, to devise a plan to destroy the President and therefore the treaty. The plan begins when the President's son, Simon, is kidnapped while spending a year studying abroad at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. When the
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
demands an expert
hostage negotiator Crisis negotiation is a law enforcement technique used to communicate with people who are threatening violenceStrentz, Thomas (2006). ''Psychological aspects of crisis negotiation.'' CRC Press, (workplace violence, domestic violence, suicide, ...
to handle the situation, CIA
Deputy Director of Operations The deputy director of the CIA for operations is a senior United States government official in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency who serves as head of the Directorate of Operations. The position was established December 1, 1950 and from Janu ...
David Weintraub nominates his old friend Quinn, an ex-
Green Beret The green beret was the official headdress of the British Commandos of the Second World War. It is still worn by members of the Royal Marines after passing the Commando Course, and personnel from other units of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF wh ...
sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...
who later became renowned as the world's most successful hostage negotiator, but he has retired to
Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...
and is not interested in working for the government. Weintraub coaxes Quinn out of retirement and he agrees to handle the negotiations if they allow him to do it his way. He is joined in his designated London flat, against his wishes, by
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
agent Samantha "Sam" Somerville and CIA officer Duncan McCrea. The kidnappers make contact and after two weeks of negotiation, agree on a $2 million ransom in diamonds, but are spooked by a fake news report that the police are closing in: Quinn steals the diamonds, evades the police and FBI and sets up the ransom drop himself, but is abducted and held in the kidnapper's hideout alongside Simon. Later, Simon and Quinn are released at different points on a deserted road, but as Simon runs towards Quinn and the police, he is killed in an explosion. President Cormack is devastated when he learns of his son's death: the possibility of his being removed under the terms of the
25th Amendment The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution deals with presidential succession and disability. It clarifies that the vice president becomes president if the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office, a ...
is brought up. A
postmortem An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
shows that Simon was killed by a bomb hidden in a belt given to him by his kidnappers: the bomb was set off by a minidet – miniature detonator – found only in the
Soviet space program The Soviet space program (russian: Космическая программа СССР, Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissoluti ...
. The Soviets are blamed and the Nantucket Treaty is effectively finished. Quinn is arrested by the FBI but released for lack of evidence. He decides to go after the kidnappers himself, and Sam – who has fallen in love with Quinn – is sent by the FBI to follow him. Quinn discovers that the kidnappers are a squad of mercenaries, but ends up finding two of them murdered. Later, the leader of the squad makes contact with Quinn and reveals that the kidnapping and ransom were part of a contract from a fat American-accented man who kept his face hidden or masked; the murder was completely unexpected, and the belt bomb was given to Simon by a Corsican hitman assigned to the squad by the contractor. The mercenaries fled across Europe after Simon's murder, but the leader found out about Quinn's investigation and called him to confess and surrender; while returning the diamonds, he is killed in a drive-by shooting from which Quinn and Sam only narrowly escape. Sam and Quinn part ways and Quinn travels to Corsica to confront the last mercenary, but is forced to kill him in self-defense. Flying back to London, Quinn is drugged, kidnapped and taken to the Russian embassy where
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
chief General Kirpicenko shows him photos of Miller, Scanlon and the three arms manufacturers who had been identified after paying an unexpected trip to a Russian airbase: it is believed they met with General Koslov, head of Soviet Southern High Command, and he gave them the minidet. Kirpicenko tells Quinn to return to Washington to flush out the conspirators and sneaks him into Vermont via Canada, secretly assigning an agent of his to provide
overwatch ''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: ''Overwatch'' released in 2016, and ''Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games fea ...
on Quinn. Knowing that the White House will have Sam's phones tapped and her mail intercepted, Quinn, hiding in a secluded cabin in the Vermont wilderness, sends her a (fake) letter stating that he knows who Simon's killers were and that he is holed up in some safe place writing it all down. Shortly after, Quinn finds Sam and tells her to be on the lookout. Sam tells Quinn that David Weintraub has been in touch and Quinn agrees to meet him, but they are instead met by Irving Moss (who has a score of his own to settle with Quinn that dates back to their days in the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
) and Duncan McCrea (revealed to be Moss' equally sadistic protégé, who turns out to have blown up Simon with the belt bomb personally). Quinn and Sam are taken at gunpoint back to Quinn's cabin where Moss reads Quinn's report, explaining that he and McCrea had been spying on them across Europe and killing the mercenaries before Quinn could reach them. Finding out that the report is fake, McCrea begins torturing Sam while Moss takes Quinn outside to execute him: however, Kirpicenko's concealed agent shoots Moss first, giving Quinn the chance to retrieve Moss' gun, return to the cabin and kill McCrea. Searching the corpses reveals Moss' address book, which eventually yields a coded telephone number which Sam identifies as belonging to a very senior politician. Quinn calls the number and, mimicking Moss' voice, demands a bonus payment for all the 'unforeseen trouble' he has had to deal with, and arranges a meeting with the man at the 'usual place', which turns out to be near the
Vietnam War Memorial The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those s ...
. The man turns out to be Hubert Reed, the
Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
, who publicly supported the Nantucket Treaty but secretly opposed it for having invested his fortune in armament companies; the trustees of his
blind trust A blind trust is a trust in which the trust beneficiaries have no knowledge of the holdings of the trust, and no right to intervene in their handling. In a blind trust, the trustees (fiduciaries, or those who have been given power of attorney) h ...
had not moved the investments. He offers Quinn the $5 million
Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...
bank draft A banker's draft (also called a bank cheque, bank draft in Canada or, in the US, a teller's check) is a cheque (or check) provided to a customer of a bank or acquired from a bank for remittance purposes, that is drawn by the bank, and drawn on an ...
(payable to the bearer) he had brought for Moss and Quinn hands over the report he has written, but the ''real'' report is later sent to the President, who then chooses not to resign and tells the world in a special broadcast the next evening what really happened to his son and why. In the aftermath, Cyrus Miller is arrested, but certified insane and therefore unable to stand trial; Scanlon and one of the arms manufacturers are arrested and confess to the entire plot; a second flees the country and the third commits suicide; Koslov is apprehended by the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
and discreetly executed. The President orders the FBI manhunt for Quinn to be permanently called off: by then, Quinn and Sam have flown off to
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
to get married. A newspaper Quinn briefly reads, made redundant earlier by the President's speech, mentions a $5 million anonymous donation to the Vietnam Veterans Paraplegic Hospital and the "accidental and mysterious" death of Treasury Secretary Reed by drowning.


Plagiarism

In 1990, Australian broadcaster Alan Jones had been a regular writer for ''
The Sun-Herald ''The Sun-Herald'' is an Australian newspaper published in tabloid or compact format on Sundays in Sydney by Nine Publishing. It is the Sunday counterpart of ''The Sydney Morning Herald''. In the 6 months to September 2005, ''The Sun-Herald' ...
'' when the newspaper announced that Jones' column would no longer appear following a petition by staff calling for his removal as a contributor. This followed Jones' publication of a column predicting an oil crisis, in which a large amount of the material had been taken directly from Forsyth's novel ''The Negotiator'' without any attribution or indication that the source was a work of fiction.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Negotiator 1989 British novels Novels by Frederick Forsyth Novels set in Texas Novels set in Washington, D.C. Novels set in London Novels set in Saudi Arabia Novels set in Paris Novels set in Corsica Novels set in Vermont Novels set in Belgium Novels set in the Netherlands Novels set in the Soviet Union Novels set in Spain Novels set in Germany Novels set in Italy Novels set in Oklahoma Bantam Books books