Barry Ecklestone is a Wall Street legend and wunderkind who always made money for his clients—that was until now. Barry’s company has taken a bath and Oleg Malignikov, his Russian mobster client, isn’t willing to take a loss. Barry needs billions to pay off Oleg and he needs it fast. His one hope is a multibillion-dollar annuity he manages for Victor Bergmann, a Silicon Valley computer genius. If he can eliminate Bergmann, Barry can use the assets backing the annuity to pay off Oleg before the Russian turns him into fish food.
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Barry sends the annuity checks to a lawyer in Utah but hasn’t actually seen Bergmann in years. Records indicate he has no passport, owns no homes, no yachts, and no private jets. How can he kill the man if he can’t find him?
There is only one property associated with Bergmann, a ranch in the wilds of Arizona. Barry dispatches a hit man to eliminate Bergmann. How hard can it be to kill a computer nerd? When the hitman disappears, Barry suspects he may have bitten off more than he can chew. Unbeknownst to Barry, Bergmann is not your average billionaire. He is an eccentric, paranoid, conspiracy theorist who used his almost unlimited resources to turned his ranch into the ultimate survivalist compound. Barry is going to need a Plan B and C and...
Black Sun Eclipse is the second book in The Praetorian Series. The initial book, Black Sun Rising, introduces the reader to the Praetorians, a privately funded, independent team of international counterterrorist operators. While the books are intended to be read in order, it is not necessary. The leader and sponsor of the Praetorians is Rusty Travis, a Texas tech billionaire whose wife, Cynthia, was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Despite his grief, he focused his time and fortune on helping the government track down the perpetrators. Frustrated with the bureaucratic inertia inherent in any government operation, he organized his own band of freelance special operators. Their targets are provided by the “steering committee,” a group of representatives from the major western intelligence agencies who get plausible deniability and, more importantly, results. The Praetorians don’t play by the rules. They don’t take prisoners. Their job is simple—they kill terrorists—and they are good at it.
The Praetorians’ most capable adversary to date has been Khalid ibn Mahfous Al-Maadi, a medical doctor and professor who teaches biology and genetics at the University of Cairo. Descended from Egyptian political royalty, Al-Maadi is also the cousin of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Determined to make his mark on the world, he started his own terrorist group, Shams Sawda or Black Sun. His nom de guerre is Abu Almawt or Father of Death and his goal is the destruction of Israel. The Praetorians disrupted Al-Maadi’s biological weapon attack and killed his Palestinian wife and co-leader, Nura. Al-Maadi managed to escape, hiding out with his cousin who was ultimately killed by an American drone strike. Al-Maadi has had two years to plot his revenge and it promises to be spectacular.
Based on real events, Rick Keaton, a high school senior in Cleveland, is thrust into the world of espionage by a malicious high school prank. A letter written in his name is sent to Radio Moscow and broadcast around the world. When the CIA arrives on his doorstep, he explains he didn’t send the letter. The response was shocking. “We don’t care. Would you send more letters if we told you what to write?” For the next four years, Soviet agents in America and Europe groom Rick to be a Soviet spy with recruitment trips to New York, then Paris, and eventually Moscow. Rick is drawn into the shadowy world of intelligence operations, dangles, traitors, and spies.
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A world away, Oleg Penkovsky, a disillusioned Colonel in Soviet Military Intelligence has decided to spy for the West. He becomes the most damaging spy in Soviet history and helps America come out on top in the Cuban Missile Crisis. It earned him the sobriquet “The Spy Who Saved the World” and cost him his life. Now it is time to rescue the rest of Penkovsky’s team stranded in Moscow. The only problem is how to contact them? The clock is ticking but CIA operations in Moscow have been completely shut down. The only one who can contact them is someone from outside Russia; someone who has been invited; someone like Rick.