Based in Hereford, England, Rainbow consists of two operational squad-sized teams of elite special forces soldiers from NATO countries, supplemented by intelligence and technology experts from the FBI, MI6, and Mossad.

Several weeks later, they are deployed to Austria, where German left-wing terrorists have taken over the schloss of a wealthy Austrian businessman to obtain (nonexistent) "special access codes" to the international trading markets.

They are later deployed to the Worldpark amusement park in Spain, where terrorists, including Basque revolutionaries, have taken a group of children hostage, killing one to demonstrate their ruthless determination.

The resulting pandemic would kill countless people, during which Horizon would distribute a "vaccine"—actually a slow-acting version of Shiva—ensuring the deaths of the rest of the world's population.

However, Clark orders the survivors to strip naked, has their clothes confiscated and facilities demolished, and leaves them to fend for themselves in the middle of the Amazon jungle, taunting them to "reconnect with nature".

Six months later, Chavez reads a news article about Popov (who was not prosecuted, instead being pardoned for all involvement due to his knowledge) discovering a rich gold deposit on a Project member's former property he had purchased, and Horizon's revolutionary medical breakthroughs under new management.

The novel shares elements found in James Bond movies: a biological weapon being used to end or rather cull the human race, mad scientists plotting world domination, and high-tech secret bases hidden from civilization.

Clancy makes the plot relevant and morally ambiguous by incorporating motivations similar to those of real-life radical ecocentric environmentalists and deep ecologists, such as Pentti Linkola and Paul R. Ehrlich,[2][3] rather than blanket hunger for power and brash misanthropic resentment.

Their discussion occurred during a Red Storm company outing in Colonial Williamsburg, when Littlejohns suggested a strategy shooter game based on the FBI Hostage Rescue Team.

Entertainment Weekly praised the novel's "sprawling, Bondesque plot" as well as its action scenes that are "vivid and cinematic—and notably lacking in the clichés and B-movie tone of his dialogue".

A review from Orlando Sentinel stated: "Clancy may have crossed the line into the realm of the unbelievable...I suspect even some of his most rabid fans will shake their heads at parts of this novel.

[8] The game was developed by Red Storm Entertainment (which was co-founded by Clancy in 1996) based on their preexisting concept of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team in an international setting.

[16] Other screenwriters including Michael Schiffer,[17][18] Bill Wisher,[19] Art Monterastelli,[20] Frank Cappello,[21] and John Enbom[22] had all worked on the script at various stages.

In July 2017, Paramount Pictures announced plans to make a film adaptation of the novel with Akiva Goldsman as producer, and a new draft penned by Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec.

[27] In September 2018, Michael B. Jordan was announced to be playing John Clark in a two-part film series, with Rainbow Six as the intended sequel to Without Remorse.