To succeed is to die... and to see his fellow military men and women die with him.

Major Mike Summers, United States Air Force, puts a foot wrong in the gulf War. It seems his career is over. Then, 20 years later and now a Lieutenant Colonel in the National Guard, he is abruptly promoted to Brigadier General and given command of his unit for deployment to Turkey. Mike doesn't know why but something smells eerily wrong.

The unit's impossible task is a covert raid on a nuclear facility in Iran with three outdated, unmarked, F-111's under command of old friend Lt Col Sarah O'Connor, and three unmarked Israeli aircraft.

To his horror, he finds that when the task is successful, his Unit is to be eliminated by a Russian strike force under Col Volkov. That's only the beginning, the Russian Colonel and his unit will suffer the same fate as the Americans, all organized by cooperating CIA and Russian agents.

The spook-inspired plan goes awry as the successful raid is completed. Both units are posted as KIA. A special Russian clean-up unit is dispatched to clean up the loose ends. Treachery and an unknown war provides the background to this story of mystery and suspense, action, adventure and romance; an action thriller in the present day's unsettled world.

Another dynamic military action thriller by David O'Neil, often referred to as the UK"s W.E.B. Griffin.