Able Team · #22

The World War III Game

by Tom Arnett · February 1986

8.0 / 10 average from 4 rated reviews

Everybody has something to hide when a top-secret U.S. lab inside a hollowed-out mountain has its main computer tapped by teenage hackers who have terrorist guns held to their heads. The lab is involved in "illegal" germ-warfare research, and the Puerto Rican terrorists' plan is simple - control the lab and bring the U.S. Government to its knees. Able Team's mission: evict and destroy!

Reviews (5)

Ice_cracked 8/10 June 21, 2007

Another first time author in this series and yet another good job done. This is like a mini Stony Man novel as many of the characters are involved including Lao Ti who is also one of my favourite recurring characters. The assault/infiltration of the CIA site with rubber bullets is a laugh and coupled with the students/instructors reactions good reading. The ending section is brilliant when the punk leader is holding two flasks of some type of virus so he thinks and what happens to him is satisfying reading. Pretty good read in this series.

Monsta Mack 8/10 November 26, 2002

This is one of Arnett's better books, along with Iron God and Death Ride. I really liked the shootout at the end of this one, the action was better written than some of the cartoonish action found in some of Arnett's books.

Gunslinger 8/10 May 15, 2000

A great read, with a lot of action, and more of that wonderful Atchisson description. Especially when Lyons kills the leader of the terrorists. Far out!!

The Man May 15, 2000

I loved the part where they raided the CIA compound.

Douglas P. Wojtowicz 8/10 May 15, 2000

I always liked Tom Arnett's books. First, Tom was never afraid to make an interesting supporting cast. And second, he was never afraid to have the boys break 15 laws, and wipe out a force of 40 bad guys in the climactic battle. While there wasn't the cruise missile problems that were promised on the cover illustration (the DEFINITIVE Able Team cover if there ever was one), it's also hard to draw an angry killer microbe.Lao Ti was featured in this one, and she's always been a favorite of mine. I wish Phoenix Force, Able Team or even Mack himself tap her for more missions, even as a non-combatant. (The first time I saw her was in a Mack Bolan novel... and it was love at first sight - War Games I think.)Politician and the hackers was a great scene too. Though he seemed older than Katz in this one by the book's end, he was still a fistfull of chuckles.And, of course, the Able Team/CIA feud begins. (To be continued in the Iron God.) Oooh, books like this make me miss the good old days when Able REALLY gave Brognola a reason to chew cigars and suck antacids.I'd love to see Barbara go from supermodel to Cloris Leachman on a steady diet of "Oh, Barb, Ironman and the gang just raided MI5, drugged half the staff and borrowed back our laptop," and "Barb, we had an oil freighter registered to a renegade Japanese corporation disappear in a flash of brilliant light that just registered on the Richter scale... coincidentally where Ironman, Gadgets and Pol went to take surfing lessons..."(Review rant off.)