Paul Richter, a retired Army officer who spent twenty-three years of his life fighting his country's battles around the world, is settling down in his new life. Richter is in love, with Celia, a smart and beautiful woman, her two teenaged children, and with the sleepy rural Georgia town in which he has settled. Celia's daughter is a member of a church youth group on a mission trip to the small town of Futuro, Mexico. After a few days, Celia and the other the parents receive the nightmarish message that their children are missing. Governments on both sides of the border seek to resolve the crisis at a glacial, diplomatic pace. Richter knows that time is not on their side. He calls on old friends from his Army days for help. Retired Senior Chief Warrant Officer Michael "Hawg" Wilde, a doctoral candidate with a collection of bemused observations and awesome weaponry, is joined by another shooter, retired Master Sergeant Billy Many Birds, an Oglala Lakota who misses his warrior life. They are supported by U.S. Marshal Arturo Battaglia, the dapper former sergeant; Smilin' Jack Cullen, a gregarious dinosaur in the technologically oriented C.I.A.; and Quentin Granger, the misanthropic computer genius with a taste for larceny and self-amusement. Richter and the shooters make their way to Futuro on the uncertain and illegal paths of smugglers and others whose stock in trade is human misery. In Futuro, Richter and his team learn that the American teens were taken by El Jefe, the ruthless and ambitious leader of a violent cartel cell. He has bargained to sell the teens to the smuggler and human trafficker known only as "The General." In this tense race against time, Richter is certain that people will die. He is relying on old skills and old friends to make sure that the ones who perish are the ones who deserve it.
