Böcker av Michael Olive

Four Chicago police officers are gunned down from long range by a sniper. Chicago is officially on notice that a siege is underway on the city's men and women in blue. Over the next six days, eleven more meet their deaths at the hands of a sniper whose moniker is Janus. Detective Harry Sanchez and his partner, Yulia Walczak work day and night to track down the sniper whose agenda is clear-kill as many police officers as possible. But without a name or a face, they are chasing a ghost. Under enormous scrutiny from the police brass, Harry enlists the help of an old friend, Cailan Bane, a former Recon Marine sniper whom the Taliban called the Death Whisperer. Based on the way the killer sets up his shots, Cailan concludes the sniper is a pro, most likely a former member of a Special Operations group. He is probably using a take-down rifle that can be carried in a backpack. The upshot is that the shooter is a gray man, undetectable in a crowd. And he has a serious beef with the CPD over some unresolved past injustice. Sanchez is desperate to stop the sniper but going after a man who can deliver death without warning from a thousand yards is too dangerous for any police officer. So, Cailan agrees to step in and hunt down the killer because while the sniper is good, Bane is the best. And when the Death Whisperer goes hunting, even the devil runs for cover.

Two CIA agents obtain a flash drive with information regarding a contract that has been offered for the assassination of several U.S. diplomats and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander of Europe. While they managed to mail the drive to their handler, both are killed by an assassin who goes by the moniker of Enigma. But when the agency dispatches agents to guard the diplomats, it's the CIA operators who are killed instead of the diplomats. Brook Nathans, one of the CIA's Special Operations Group's top operators is charged with finding and killing Enigma. But the only thing known about the assassin is based on analysis of a blood sample recovered from the scene of one of the hits attributed to the killer that indicates Enigma is a woman. Just as Brook begins her assignment, a second contract appears. An anonymous source has put out a contract for the death of any CIA or MI6 operator. Even though her identity is a closely guarded secret, an assassin recognizes Brook on a crowded tram and tries to kill her. While she manages to kill the man, she realizes her agency has been compromised, forcing her to go off the grid. Operating on her own without agency support leaves Brook in a precarious position. She must find and kill Enigma while being chased by assassins looking to collect a bounty. But when she begins receiving text messages from a mysterious person who saves her life and informs her that much of her information about Enigma is wrong, she's left in a quandary. With no idea who is telling the truth and who can be trusted, her predicament has become truly devious.

Esad Marki, the head of the Chicago branch of the Albanian Mafia oversaw the central hub of the organization's fentanyl trafficking business. After the FBI arrested fourteen members of his group, their U.S. operations were effectively shut down. In retaliation, Marki has the son of one of the federal attorneys prosecuting the case, sixteen-year-old Charlie Dumont, kidnapped. When they attempt to abduct him, Charlie's friend, Neevie Ansbro tries to intervene. She, too, is sixteen, built like a gymnast, and wears her strawberry blond hair in a long braided ponytail. She kills one of the four abductors with a knife and wounds a second before she is tased and sedated. The Albanians spirit the kids away to a remote area of New Mexico and take them on a long hike into the wilderness toward one of their fentanyl processing outposts. What they don't know is that Neevie is a genetically engineered assassin. In addition to having extensive survival training, she is an expert with handguns and can put a bullet up a fly's behind at 800 yards with a rifle. She will need all her training if she is to help Charlie and herself escape. Their captors are about to learn an important lesson too late. While Neevie looks like a cute little teenage girl, she is the personification of death, and they will soon come to know that death wears a ponytail.

Sissel Eklund is not a normal human. She is an Optomorph, genetically engineered to be gifted in intelligence, unmatched in physical skills, and peerless in the art of killing. Through the science of steganography, their masters, the Adigeons control them through commands contained in the pixels of pictures. When a message is sent, it compels the receiver to carry out an assassination but if the task is not completed, a second command is sent that will cause them to die of a cerebral hemorrhage. However, a severe concussion after a motorcycle accident left Sissel with all the genetic augmentations, but she no longer reacts to the steganographic commands. She is a rogue who runs a French café in a Michigan Avenue shopping mall in Chicago. But when she's forced to use her skills to repel a terrorist attack, she discovers the attackers are Optomorphs. Her actions draw the attention of the Adigeons who send their assassins after her. But a group of four rogue Optomorphs intervene and reveal that the Adigeons have changed from an assassin-for-hire company to having the more global aspiration of controlling governments, judiciaries, and industries. And with their lethal skills, they can quietly kill anyone who gets in their way. But Sissel has a group of her own deadly friends and together with the rogues they must destroy the Adigeons before they can infiltrate the highest echelons of Western society. Otherwise, the West will be controlled by master assassins who will make Stalin and his cronies look like cream puffs.

Photo chronicle of the German invasion of France in the spring of 1940.

How the exploits of panzer troops were reported on the German home front.