from the perspective of Ben Hansen and the rest of the team pursuing Fisher. The events reveal a plot of international intrigue. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist: Aftermath (2013) Published in October 2013, this tie-in novel takes place after the events of the video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. "Eccentric billionaire Igor Kasperov owns one of the most influential and successful anti-virus software companies in the world. But when the Kremlin orders him to unleash a catastrophic computer virus against the United States, he is forced to flee for his life. Sam Fisher and Fourth Echelon are charged with finding Kasperov and presenting the American president’s offer for political asylum. Because there are others looking for Kasperov. And the only thing they will offer him is a swift death." Aftermath is written by Peter Telep and the first in the series to be authored without the use of the David Michaels pseudonym. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Firewall (2022) Firewall was released on March 1 for Kindle and on March 15 for paperback. It was written by James Swallow and will feature Sam Fisher's daughter, Sarah, working alongside her father. The plot finds Fisher facing off against an assassin from his past and a sinister threat to global security - a powerful cyberwarfare technology known as Gordian Sword, capable of cutting through any firewall in existence, to be auctioned off to the highest bidder in a rogue’s gallery of terrorists, criminals and renegade states. Common elements Plot and themes The first game explains that "Splinter Cell" refers to an elite recon-type unit of single covert operatives (such as Sam Fisher) who are supported in the field by a high-tech remote team. In the first three games (Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory), terrorists are planning attacks, usually by use of information warfare, which Fisher, an operative for Third Echelon, a secret branch of the NSA, must prevent. The missions range from gathering intelligence to capturing and/or eliminating terrorists. In the fourth game, Double Agent, Fisher assumes the identity of a wanted criminal in order to infiltrate a terrorist ring. The fifth game, Conviction, begins immediately after Double Agent. Having abandoned Third Echelon, Fisher discovers that the death of his daughter Sarah had not been an accident (as had been purported at the beginning of Double Agent), leading him to strike out on his own in search of those responsible, until