Rainbow Six (novel) Quotes

“TV Anchor: But who decides when it's necessary?”

“Henriksen: You only use deadly force when necessary—but when it's necessary, you do use it.”

“Because of a random event—bad luck. A hell of a thing to tell someone who'd just lost a husband. Cause of death, bad luck.”

“"Chavez here, I just dropped two." The excitement of the moment masked the shame of how easy it had been. This was pure murder.”

“It would forever be regarded as a very bad shot. Half a second later, the 7-mm bullet struck the subject six inches below the sternum.”

“"We're going to be close to overloading the aircraft," Harrison warned.
"That's why it's got two engines, son," the Marine pointed out.”

“One of them came outside and lit a pipe—how very Swiss! Popov thought. The bugger probably climbs mountains for personal entertainment, too.”

“"Bear, this is Six," Clark called on the radio.
"Bear copies, Six, over."
"We execute in five minutes."
"Roger that, we party in five."”

“Clark: You get a nap. The rest of the team arrives in about half an hour."
Ding: "The rest of what team?"
Clark: Everybody who can move and shoot, son.”

“"This is some place," one voice said. "Look at these trees, man."
"Yeah, big, ain't they?"
"What kind of trees?" a third asked.
"The kind somebody can hide behind and shoot your ass from!" a more serious voice pointed out.”

“Henriksen: The commander on the scene makes that decision, based on his training, experience, and expertise. Then, Henriksen didn't go on, people like you second-guess the hell out of him for the next couple weeks.”

“The man had to be tense, Popov knew. Betrayal was how most of the people like Fürchtner got caught, and though Dmitriy was known and trusted by them, you could only be betrayed by someone whom you trusted, a fact known to every covert operator in the world.”

“They were either very brave or very foolish to go to that country, Popov thought. [...] Bokassa had killed his way to the top, as had so many African chiefs of state, before dying, remarkably, of natural causes—so the papers said, anyway, you could never really be sure, could you?”

“"Joe!" a happy voice said out of his field of vision. He looked up to see a fortyish man with a beaming smile.
"Patrick!" Popov responded, standing, going over to shake hands. It's been a long time. Very long, as he'd never met this particular chap before, though they exchanged greetings like old friends.”

“Popov: It went much as I had expected. They were foolish—really rather amateurish, despite all the training we gave them back in the eighties. I told them to feel free to rob the bank as a cover for the real mission–
John Brightling: Which was?
Popov: To be killed.”

“On the way to the range, they passed Chavez, Price, and the rest, coming out with their MP-10s, joking with one another as they passed. Evidently everyone had had a good morning on the range.
"Ach," Weber snorted, "anyone can shoot at five meters!"”

“"Thanks, Doc." Chavez hefted the book for weight and headed out the door. The Enraged Outlook: Inside the Terrorist Mind was the title. It wouldn't hurt to understand them a little better, though he figured the best thing about the inside of a terrorist's mind was a 185-grain 10-mm hollow-point bullet entering at high speed.”

“Carol Brightling: Who did the takedown?
George Winston: Well– [...] What did the news say?
Carol: Local cops, Vienna police SWAT team, I guess.
George: Well, I suppose they learned up on how to do it.
Carol: The Austrians? Who'd they learn it from?
George: Somebody who knows how, I guess.”

“"We have thought that one through," Hans assured his guest.
Popov wondered briefly about that. But he'd be surprised if they even boarded an aircraft, much less got it to Africa. The problem with "missions" like this one was that no matter how carefully most of its parts had been considered, this chain was decidedly no stronger than its weakest link, and the strength of that link was all too often determined by others, or by chance, which was even worse.”

“"Oso backs us up, but I don't think we'll have much use for him on this trip." Julio Vega had become their heavy-machine gunner, slinging a laser-sighted M-60 7.62-mm machine gun for really serious work, but there wasn't much use for that now—and wouldn't be, unless everything went totally to hell.”