The Red Guard (novel)
The Red Guard is the 28th novel in the long-running Nick Carter-Killmaster series of spy novels.[1] Carter is a US secret agent, code-named N-3, with the rank of Killmaster. He works for AXE – a secret arm of the US intelligence services.
Publishing history
The book was first published in 1967 (Number A261X) by Award Books part of the Beacon-Signal division of Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation (New York, USA), part of the
Plot summary
The novel is set in October 1967.
Sun Yat, an elderly Chinese bookseller in
Carter is summoned to a meeting of the Joint Intelligence Chiefs at CIA headquarters. Carter learns that Fan Su – an anti-communist agent he helped on an earlier mission (described in Dragon Flame) has requested his help in supporting an anti-communist underground movement within China. Fan Su is currently in San Francisco. Carter also learns that Chinese forces are constructing a 500-mile long tunnel beneath the Chumbi Valley from Tibet into India to invade India and to conceal construction of the world's largest hydrogen bomb. Carter's mission is to enter China and destroy the bomb and tunnel before they can be used.
Carter heads to San Francisco to meet Fan Su. He visits a pharmacist in Chinatown where Sun Yat delivered his secret materials for forwarding to AXE. Carter is met by a Chinese acupuncturist who gives the correct response to his coded introduction. The Chinese man attacks Carter with curare-tipped acupuncture needles but is overpowered and killed. Carter finds the real contact dead in a closet and Fan Su tied up next to him. Carter and Fan Su kill another two agents as they escape from the pharmacy.
They head to a safe house in
After spending several days in Shanghai, Carter learns that Po-Choy, Fan Su's half-brother and a fellow ringleader of the underground movement who had infiltrated the
In the Chinese hinterland, Fan Su's family friend, a local warlord named General Teng Fa, provides shelter and armed guides while they wait for a CIA plane from Sikkim to take them to the Chumbi valley. General Teng tells Carter of an unguarded valley running parallel to Chumbi valley with ancient carved steps that will provide a shortcut into the Chumbi valley. Teng warns Carter that the place is called the Valley of the Yeti.
Carter and Fan Su arrive at the valley by parachute. Carter leaves Fan Su alone guarding their camp and infiltrates the secret tunnel excavation where he plants a small atomic grenade near the unfinished H-bomb assembly. The bomb is timed to explode 30 minutes after Carter and Fan Su are picked up by helicopter at their pre-arranged landing site.
Carter hears shots as he scales the cliff to return to Fan Su. Carter finds only blood stains, a bent rifle and giant footprints. Carter follows the bloodstains and footprints and discovers Fan Su's mangled body. She has been killed by some large animal – possibly a Yeti. Carter follows the wounded animal into a series of interconnected caves but loses it. Carter is picked up by the CIA helicopter and returns to base in Sikkim as the tunnel and bomb are destroyed.
Main characters
- Nick Carter – agent N-3, AXE (posing as Jerry Hunt)
- David Hawk – head of AXE; Carter's boss
- Fan Su – head of anti-communist underground; Carter's ally
- General Teng Fa – Chinese warlord; family friend of Fan Su
- Po-Choy – Fan Su's half-brother; commander of Red Guards
- Charles Donnellen – deputy-director, CIA
- Debbie Hunt – Carter's god-daughter
References
- ^ "Nick Carter".
- ISBN 978-0-7864-4165-5
- ^ "The Red Guard by Manning Lee Stokes". www.spyguysandgals.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
- ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1967: July–December. By Library of Congress. Copyright Office, p2294