A lot of confusion, a lot of humor, a lot of broken dreams and broken promises, an occasional triumph.
1978-a chance meeting on a remote military airbase between two Green Berets involved in the same operation leads to a partnership that will last over forty years. Four years after that meeting, Nick Brokhausen and Jeff Miller leave the service within a few weeks of each other and begin an odyssey that takes them to dozens of countries on five continents.
Along with a small coterie of fellow former Special Operations and intelligence community veterans like Penguini, Max, Reek, The Spider Woman and a score of others-some heroes and some villains-they undertake a variety of missions for the government, other governments, large multinational corporations mostly in the aerospace or resource development industries, and occasionally just for suffering individuals who cannot find help anywhere else. In the process they lay the groundwork for an entire new industry of private military contractors. Two men sadly just a bit ahead of their time.
Special Agent Dagny Gray is a member of a small FBI team that operates with unprecedented independence. To maintain its autonomy, the team must continue to solve big cases. To stay on the team, Dagny must keep her personal demons under control.
When Father Diego Vega tells her that undocumented workers are vanishing from a small town gripped by immigration politics, Dagny thinks she's found her next case. But without bodies or proof of foul play, her boss won't let her take it. Defying his orders, Dagny risks her career to investigate with Father Vega.
The families of the victims don't trust her. The local police won't help her, and the sheriff wants to stop her. Deep down, she worries that she's not going to find the missing men alive. But what she uncovers is more horrifying than anything she could have imagined....
Special Agent Dagny Gray is smart, athletic, and fearless. She's also fragile, depressed, and anorexic. If she doesn't get healthy soon, the FBI will drop her - and she'll never have a chance to end the crime spree of the so - called "bubble gum thief." It all started with the theft of a pack of gum, and the ominous note he left behind: THIS IS MY FIRST CRIME. MY NEXT WILL BE BIGGER. Every two weeks, he delivers on this pledge, committing a bigger crime, and promising that the next will be even worse. When petty theft gives way to bloody murder, the stakes become clear. He may have begun with the smallest crime possible, but he's building toward the biggest crime imaginable. There's a method to the gum thief's madness, and Special Agent Dagny Gray knows she can figure it out...if the Bureau will let her. But will it be in time to prevent the cataclysmic finale of his escalating spree?
