Winds of War

World War III is a month old. After attacking and sinking the Destroyer USS Stacy Heath, the Chinese invade Tibet and India counterattacks. Rather than allow the Chinese to seize control of the subcontinent the U.S. sends 20,000 U.S. soldiers and marines in to join the fight. The Russians invade Ukraine, which leaves NATO with no choice but to respond. A full-fledged ground war begins. American forces are spread thin, and the decision is made to evacuate all personnel from Afghanistan. Troops have already begun to pull out when Air Force JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) Dan Falco receives orders to kill a ruthless Taliban leader named Noor Mohammad Hashemi. But it won't be easy. Meanwhile 7,000 miles to the north, the Russians are holding a training exercise called RED ICE. Except that it isn't a training exercise and, if American forces fail to stop the enemy, the Russians will land on American soil. An accomplishment that would be a tremendous blow to American morale, and would suck much-needed resources away from the conflicts in Europe and Asia. Army Air Force and even Coast Guard personnel will do their best to push the Russians back. But will their best be good enough?

World War III is three months old. After attacking and sinking the Destroyer USS Stacy Heath, the Chinese took possession of Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. The U.S. sends 20,000 soldiers and marines in to support India. The Russians use the opportunity to invade Ukraine, which leaves NATO with no choice but to counterattack. A full-fledged European ground war begins. The so-called Axis consists of Russia, China, Pakistan, Syria, and Iran, including the Shia paramilitary organization called Hezbollah. Now, in the Middle East, the Russian commandos and a company-strength team of Hezbollah terrorists attack and capture Egypt's Aswan Dam. But Egypt has no national government. So as the Axis attempts to form a Shia-friendly government, the Allies send a convoy of vessels up the Nile river with orders to capture the dam. The mission is called Operation Pharaoh. And for it to succeed Lieutenant Commander Harley Kydd will have to cope with a prickly commanding officer, and battle a succession of warlords, before a final confrontation with Hezbollah. If they fail, the Axis will seize control of Egypt, and strike a blow from which the Allied war effort will never be able to recover.

World War III is a few months month old. After attacking, and sinking the Destroyer USS Stacy Heath, the Chinese seize control of Nepal and Bhutan and push into India where the Allies manage to stop them. But for how long? Pakistan is attacking from the north, and China is preparing for the “big push” from the east. Worse yet, China's Ministry of State Security has orders to assassinate the Dalai Lama, rather than run the risk that he will inspire a Buddhist rebellion in Tibet. As a team of assassins close in on the Dalai Lama, Green Beret Captain Jon Lee and his men are behind Chinese lines in Nepal, battling to rescue a downed fighter pilot before enemy troops can capture him. The entire subcontinent is at risk if the assassins succeed...And, if the region falls, hundreds of thousands of people will die-even as millions more are lost to the Axis. Together with a self-centered army doctor named Wendy Kwan, and a team consisting of both green berets and Gurkhas, it will be Lee's responsibility to navigate treacherous terrain and prevent Chinese Agent Fan Tong and his special ops team from changing the course of the war.

As the war heats up the Russian plant is producing significant quantities of Rhenium, a rare Earth element used to produce alloys for jet engines, filaments for mass spectrographs, and electrical contacts. And, according to a CIA agent named Cassandra, the Russians are going to move a large shipment of Rhenium out of the Kyshtym facility to Moscow in 24 days. A decision is made at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Rather than allow the Russians to transport the Rhenium to Moscow, where they will use it as part of the war effort, the Allies will create a pop-up infantry battalion, and send it into Russian territory to hijack the shipment. The man chosen to lead the battalion is an army reserve colonel, and well-known actor named Alton Flynn, a man who, though famous for performing his own stunts and his magnetic personality, is also known to be a narcissist and a woman chaser. But as one general puts it, "Flynn is just crazy enough to get the job done... Assuming we send a real soldier to keep him on the rails." The "real soldier" is Flynn's XO, Major Marlo Martin - who's known for her cool head. She, along with CIA Paramilitary Officer Dan Dean, and a battalion consisting of 300 strangers, are about to attempt the impossible. If they manage to succeed that, according to the Director of the CIA, "Will be a f'ing miracle."

When Chinese satellites detect the presence of an American Battle Group only a few hundred miles over the horizon, Captain Peng Ko receives orders to attack it. The enemy battle group includes the aircraft carrier Concord which, given its planes and escorts, should be impervious to anything that a single cruiser could throw at it. But the Sea Dragon is equipped with a one-of-a-kind experimental weapon that can not only fire projectiles from a long distance away, but can inflict terrible damage when it does so. Five hits are sufficient to send the Concord to the bottom. The hunt for the Sea Dragon begins. Meanwhile on the other side of the world, the Allies are planning to attack the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. In order to succeed the Allies will have to engage enemy patrol boats and neutralize heavily armed gun towers. The invaders will also be forced to fight the cruiser Omsk which, if allowed to enter the Mediterranean Sea, could wreak havoc on Allied shipping. US Navy Commander Maxwell Ryson and his squadron of Pegasus Class II Hydrofoils will be front and center during the attack, and will, despite their relatively small size, be forced to engage the mighty Omsk.

Red Sands is the story of Strike Team 3, a combined arms unit consisting of mechanized infantry Strykers, and Tanks. Natanz is a hardened Fuel Enrichment Plant, covering sixty-two square miles located twenty-six feet underground and protected by a concrete wall that's eight feet thick. And on top of that, the Americans will have to overcome a mechanized security force at third larger than their force. In February of 2003 General Mohamed ElBaradei visited the site and reported that 160 centrifuges were complete and ready for operation with 1,000 more under construction. The site has been cloaked in total secrecy since then. In order for Major Sean Finn and his troops to accomplish their mission, they'll have to cope with the self-absorbed Saudi Prince attached to the unit for political reasons, a company of Russian tanks that's rolling south from the Caspian Sea, a battalion of Iranian special forces troops sent to kill them, and the Kavir desert-which is very hostile. "It is," in the words of the New York Times reporter embedded with Strike Team 3, "the definition of a suicide mission."

In Red River, the seventh volume of the Winds of War series, WIII continues to rage as Lieutenant Commander Leo Baxter and his Riverines battle Axis forces in the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf of Aden, and finally-on the Niger River in Africa. Nigeria's rightful leader has been kidnapped by the Black Axe arm of the Neo Black Movement, and is being held for ransom. The Allies want Abeo Kabir to be freed, but Nigeria's vice president doesn't. Nor does the leader of the terrorist organization called Boko Haram, or the Chinese diplomat, charged with putting a puppet government in place. Should Baxter and his Riverines fail, China will establish a military foothold in Africa, and the people of Nigeria will suffer under the rule of a despot.