Skorzeny, Colonel Otto. Personal bodyguard to Adolf Hitler.
JAPANESE COMMANDERS
Hidaka, Commander Jisaku, IJN. Interim Military Governor of Hawaii.
Homma, General Masaharu. Commander of Imperial Japanese land forces in Australia.
Oshima, General Hiroshi. Japanese ambassador to Germany.
Uemura, Lieutenant Masahisa, Squadron leader, “Thunder Gods,” Special Attack Squadron, Sapporo.
Yamamoto, Grand Admiral Isoroku, IJN. Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet.
USSR
Yukio, Lieutenant Seki, Commander Special Attack Squadron, Caroline Islands.
COMMANDERS
Beria, Lavrenty Pavlovich. Head of NKVD.
Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich. Prisoner.
Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich. Foreign Minister.
Stalin, Josef Vissarionovich. General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
CIVILIANS
Davidson, James “Slim Jim.” Formerly Able Seaman, USS Astoria. Chief Executive Officer and principal shareholder Slim Jim Enterprises.
Donovan, William. Chief of the Office of Strategic Services.
Duffy, Julia, New York Times feature writer. Embedded 82nd MEU.
Halifax, Lord. British Ambassador to USA.
Hoover, J. Edgar. Director, FBI.
Natoli, Rosanna, CNN researcher/producer. Embedded 82nd MEU.
O’Brien, Ms. Maria. Lawyer, former USMC captain, 82nd MEU. (Retd.)
Stephenson, William. Churchill’s personal representative in the USA.
PROLOGUE
CHRISTMAS DAY 1942HMAS HAVOC, 210 NAUTICAL MILES
SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
Captain Jane Willet came awake in an instant-even before the chime rang at her cabin door. At least that’s how it seemed.
It’s probably just my mind getting bent of out shape.
Willet was groggy from a fortnight of broken sleep. Gone were the days of dialing up a stim surge from her implants. Indeed, most of the things she had taken for granted were long gone. Close friends and family outside this boat. Six hundred channels of bad TV. Thai food. No-fuss contraception.