|
''Scarecrow'' is the fifth Matthew Reilly novel, and the third to feature the main character Captain Shane Schofield, USMC. It was released in 2003. ==Plot summary== Majestic-12, a group of the world's richest men, make up a bounty list of fifteen targets that have to be eliminated before 12 noon of October 26th. Among the targets is Shane Schofield, who at that moment is on a mission in Siberia with Book II and a group of Marines. Schofield's team is supposed to meet up with two Delta groups, the leaders of the which are also on M-12's hit list. Schofield's unit comes under fire from a group of bounty hunters led by Cedric Wexley and all but Schofield and Book II are killed. Schofield and Book II escape via a hijacked plane owned by a bounty hunter known as the Hungarian. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, Schofield's girlfriend Elizabeth Gant leads a group of Marines, along with Mother, to a cave system where Osama bin Laden's number two man is. Schofield races to Afghanistan to find Gant so that none of the bounty hunters can use her to get to him, but arrives too late to save her and she gets captured by a bounty hunter group known as IG-88, led by Damon "Demon" Larkham. Schofield meets a bounty hunter named Aloysius Knight who has been paid to protect him and teams up with him. Knight and Schofield go to save Gant while Book II and Mother go to London to confront another person on the hit list. Meanwhile, the other people on the hit list are being taken out. Schofield's friend David Fairfax goes to help one of them but the man he is going to help is killed, as is the person Book II and Mother are attempting to meet. Schofield, Knight, and Gant disguise themselves as bounty hunters to get into a castle owned by Jonathan Killian, one of the men in Majestic-12, to find out more about the bounty hunt. While Knight claims the bounty on two heads, Killian sets a trap for Schofield and Gant, forcing them to escape in one of Killian's cars with Wexley's men in hot pursuit, followed by Knight in his Sukhoi . Schofield goes over a cliff and is presumed dead while Knight and Gant are captured. Mother is picked up by Rufus, Knight's pilot, and goes to help Knight while Schofield is captured by the French and brought to an aircraft carrier to explain to him why he is to be terminated. At Killian's castle, Gant is brutally murdered on a guillotine. However, Knight escapes, Gant's final words being for Knight to tell Schofield she would have said yes to his planned proposal. Rufus, Mother, and Knight go to rescue Schofield. On the French aircraft carrier, it is revealed that Schofield, along with the fifteen other targets, are the only people who have quick enough reactions to disable the missiles being launched from disguised ships in the Kormoran Project. The plane involves copies of different countries' missiles being launched at their bitterest enemies, resulting in a new Cold War which will bring in huge profits for the members of Majestic-12. Schofield is rescued before being killed by Knight, but then het reveals to him that Gant was murdered. Saddened by Gant's death, Schofield attempts to commit suicide but is stopped by Mother. in the meantime, the President of the USA gives all of the US Armed Forces' resources to Schofield to neutralize the threat posed by the ships. He then directs certain ships to be sunk using torpedoes. At the same time, Fairfax and Book II are flown to different ships so that Schofield can disable all of the missiles at the same time. Schofield succeeds in disabling the missiles, but Mother is presumed to have perished. Schofield later learns that there is a backup plan and a missile is heading right for Mecca on the first day of Ramadan. Schofield is able to deactivate the missile but in turn, M-12 captures Schofield, Rufus, and Knight. Shofield is about to be killed in the same way and by the same person as Gant was but Mother reveals herself to be alive and Schofield kills Gant's killer while Rufus is injured. Knight and Schofield go to confront Killian and Wexley is killed too. Schofield throws himself and Killian out of a window in a suicide attempt, but Knight saves Schofield. Several months later, Knight and Rufus meet the person who hired them, Lillian Mattencourt, the richest woman on the planet, who ruined M-12s plan because they would not let her be part of the group as she was a woman. It is also revealed that the rest of M-12 died in mysterious ways. Demon and the IG-88 kill Knight's payer as revenge for taking two of their bounties during the hunt. Later, at Mother's house, Schofield receives a letter from Knight telling him to accept Gant's death and move on. Schofield then goes to the Marine Corps building and says he's ready for duty again. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Scarecrow (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|