Plot summary[edit]
CIA operative
John Clark forms a secret multi-national
counter-terrorist unit known as Rainbow. Based in
Hereford, England, the unit consists of two operational squads composed of elite soldiers from NATO countries, and is supplemented by intelligence and technological experts from
MI6,
Mossad, and
FBI. Clark serves as the commanding officer, his son-in-law Domingo Chavez leads one of the two squads, and the second in command is
Special Air Service (SAS) officer Alistair Stanley.
For their first deployment, Chavez's squad rescues hostages during a bank robbery in
Bern,
Switzerland. Several weeks later, they are deployed to
Austria, where a group of left-wing German terrorists have taken over the
schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman in order to obtain "special access codes" to the international trading markets. They are then deployed to a hostage situation in an amusement park in
Spain, where a group of French terrorists have taken a group of children hostage and demand that various prisoners, including
Carlos the Jackal, be released.
Clark and his colleagues become suspicious about the sudden rise in terrorist attacks. Unbeknownst to them, the first two attacks are part of a master plan to wipe out nearly all of the human race, codenamed "the Project". Dr. John Brightling, a staunch environmentalist who heads a
biotechnology firm called the Horizon Corporation, ordered the attacks through ex-
KGB officer Dmitriy Popov in order to raise awareness against terrorism, which would then allow co-conspirator Bill Henriksen's security firm to land a key contract during the
Olympic Games in
Sydney, Australia. From within the Olympics security apparatus, Henriksen plans to use a
bioweapon containing the Shiva virus, a strengthened form of the
Ebola virus that had been used by
Iran in its biological attack on the U.S. Since people from virtually every country in the world are present at the Olympics, infecting them would ensure the swift worldwide spread of the virus. The resulting epidemic would kill millions, and Horizon would distribute a "vaccine" that actually contains a slow-acting version of the virus itself, which would then kill the rest of the world's population. The "chosen few", having been provided with the real vaccine, would then be allowed to inherit the emptied world.
Popov, unaware of the Project, discovers the existence of Rainbow as he reviews the responses to his attacks, and brings it to Brightling's attention. He is later tasked by Brightling and Henriksen to orchestrate an attack on Rainbow in order to prevent them from being deployed to the Sydney Olympics. He persuades breakaway members of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army to take over a hospital near Rainbow's base and take Clark and Chavez's wives hostage. While two Rainbow operatives are killed and several others wounded in an ambush, Rainbow teams manage to retake the building without civilian casualties and capture some of the terrorists. Interrogation reveals Popov's involvement, and Brightling brings him to Horizon's secret base in
Kansas. Upon learning about the Project, an appalled Popov escapes and reveals his knowledge to Clark. Meanwhile, Chavez and his team, who were deployed to the Olympics to oversee venue security, thwart the attack.
Their plans in shambles, Brightling and key co-conspirators escape to another, smaller Horizon base deep in the Brazilian
rain forest. Clark personally leads a team there, and they dispatch the remaining terrorists and destroy the facility and supplies. Knowing that there is not enough evidence to convict them, Clark instead has the survivors stripped naked and left to fend for themselves in the jungle, taunting them to "reconnect with nature."