First Strike

Book Six in the Burnham series begins just after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Frank Burnham has just returned home from Zimbabwe, his first mission as a CIA paramilitary contractor, when the horrific television images of the collapse of the towers is shown around the world. He knows the CIA will be calling him again soon. His wait isn't long. He's called to CIA headquarters and put on a CIA team to enter Afghanistan to take the fight to the enemy - al-Qaeda and their hosts the Taliban. The team of CIA operators and Special Forces soldiers deploy to help the Northern Alliance to defeat the Taliban, but their real mission is to capture or kill al-Qaeda terrorists, especially Usama bin Laden. Burnham soon has his own team roaming the Afghan countryside, fighting through ambushes and developing Intelligence among shadowy warlords. He's been to Afghanistan six times before, arming the Northern Alliance, so he has contacts and knows his way around the dangerous country. The battle surges toward Kabul and the Taliban retreats south toward Kandahar while al-Qaeda goes east toward Pakistan. The battle against al-Qaeda culminates on the mountain known locally as Tora Bora, an old al-Qaeda stronghold. Burnham and his small team are again roaming the surrounding mountains looking for al-Qaeda targets of opportunity - ambushing and sniping in the frigid weather. Near the end of the battle, Burnham is recalled to Kabul. He's sent to Dubai, his old stomping grounds from when he worked for an international arms dealer. Dubai is the financial and transportation crossroads for many terrorist groups. While there, Burnham comes into contact with a Russian operative who is also in Dubai on the same mission for his country. The United States and Russia are, for the moment, semi-allies in the war on terror. Burnham and the Russian, known as Dimitri, have a shared history (Burnham Book 4, Lone Wolves). Dimitri helps Burnham identify an important al-Qaeda terrorist, Rahim al-Nashiri. Soon al-Nashiri is joined by a new terrorist -- Sean Childers, a huge American who soon demonstrates how dangerous he really is. The locale soon changes. Childers and a small team of terrorists are sent by sea to deliver money to terrorists in Yemen for future operations. Burnham and another CIA operative are sent to hunt down the money couriers. They're soon joined by a Global Response Staff team of gunmen for protection while in always dangerous Yemen. One of the GRS gunmen is Jim Daly, Burnham's team mate when he was in Afghanistan. Things don't work out in Yemen. Terrorists seem to be always one step ahead of Burnham's team. There's a terrorist mole in the US Embassy in Sana'a providing timely Intelligence to the terrorists. Three American are killed in an al-Qaeda ambush in Sana'a, an ambush organized and ruthlessly led by Sean Childers. Burnham is then recalled to Dubai. He's offered a job with a military security company doing contract work for the CIA and several other Western Intelligence organizations. Beside their legal Intelligence gathering work, they also have a secret unit that tracks down and kills very dangerous terrorists - work the CIA and others are prohibited from doing by law, but work that has to be done. Burnham joins this secret unit. The company is called Leonidas Group and is located in London, the UK. They also recruit Jim Daly. Burnham and Daly are teamed to track down and kill their first high-priority target, a terrorist they already know - Sean Childers. Childers has just killed three British Intelligence operatives in Baku, Azerbaijan. He and a small team of terrorists are somewhere in the Caucasus with a van-full of arms and explosives. The manhunt is on.