An American covert 5 person team is in place to blow up a manufacturing facility that was developing and supplying Anthrax. The team was made up of Sayyed (a native Iranian who was now an American citizen, a tough, wiry man in his late forties), Hadi Santana who was of Arabic and Mexican heritage, but an American. Husband and wife - Dallas & Niema Burcock (Dallas as former SEAL and contractor for the CIA, and Niema an electronics specialist), and their leader Darren Tucker.
Sayyed, Hadi, and Dallas are set to go in, set explosives, destroy the facility and get out. Tucker and Niema are to stay behind, monitor the mission, destroy all the electronic devices, and later rendez-vous with the rest of the team.
The team runs into trouble and all hell brakes loose. The team is ambushed, and while Niema is listening, Tucker orders Dallas to activate the detonators while he's still inside the facility.
Niema then shuts down, her last memory is of her husband making Tucker promise to look after Niema for him.
Tucker then proceeds to get Niema out of Iran. Niema is only eating when Tucker gives her food, she isn't talking or sleeping.
There comes a point where Tucker decides she has to sleep because she's gone days without, so her lies down behind her tells her stories both true in fictional in order for her to relax enough to sleep.
This description of a solar eclipse was so well written, I had to include it in my review.
"I saw a solar eclipse once. I was in South America." He didn't get any more specific than that. "The weather was so hot the air felt sticky. Cold showers didn't do any good; I was sweaty again as soon as I got toweled off. Everyone wore as little clothing as possible." He didn't know if she was listening; he didn't much care. He kept that soothing, gently monotonous tone, his voice just barely above a whisper. If he could bore her to sleep, so much the better. "It had been on the radio that there would be a solar eclipse that day, but the heat was so miserable no one much cared. It was just a little village, not the type to attract any eclipse chasers. I had forgotten about it myself. It was a sunny day, so bright the light hurt my eyes, and I was wearing sunglasses. The eclipse slipped up on me. The sun was still shining, the sky was blue, but all of a sudden it was as if a cloud had passed over the sun. The birds all stopped singing, and the village pets hid. "One of the villagers looked up and said, 'Look at the sun,' and I remembered about the eclipse. I told them not to stare, that it would blind them if they looked too long. The light was eerie, if you can imagine dark sunshine. The sky turned a really deep shade of blue, and the temperature dropped at least twenty degrees. It kept getting darker and darker, but the sky was still blue. Finally the sun was completely covered, and the solar halo around the moon was . . . spectacular. On the ground we were in a strange, deep twilight, and everything was quiet, but overhead the sky glowed. The twilight lasted for a couple of minutes, and during that time the entire village stood still. Men, women, and children; none of them moved, or spoke. "Then the light began to come back, and the birds started singing again. The chickens came off roost, and the dogs barked. The moon moved on, and it was as hot as it had been before, but no one bitched about the weather anymore."
Niema breathing finally starts to slow, and her body isn't as stiff as it was. Tucker then starts telling her more stories until Niema finally drifts off to sleep. Niema wakes up spooning Tucker thinking it is her husband, it is then it finally hits her that Dallas is dead, and the flood-gates are opened, the wall she has put up has cracked, and she now begins to mourns the death of her husband while being held and comforted by Tucker.
...5 years later
After the death of her husband Niema has decided the wild-adventurous side of her is what inevitability got her husband killed because she is the one that wanted to take the mission, not him. She never re-married. She dates, though not often. She has a comfortable-safe desk job with the CIA. "She's busy. She likes her work, she's very well paid, she has a nice home, drives a new car". But, unknown to her is that Tucker (who is really CIA field operative John Medina) has kept his eye on her from a distance, making sure she's okay because he wants her for himself.
When a new explosive is used to take down a plane, Tucker/John is given the mission of tracking down this new explosive, and He asks Niema to go in on the operation with him. When Niema sees Tucker for the first time in 5 years, Tucker introduces himself with his 'real' name, his identity that only a select few have knowledge of which now includes her...and for 5 years John has thought that Niema blamed him for her husbands death, because he was the one that gave the order to kill himself to get the mission done. Niema never did blame him, because she knew her husband would do anything for the mission to be successful.
Niema is hesitant to be back in the field, but apart of her (the part that she's buried for 5 years) wants to take this job. She finally agrees to take this 'one' mission (to get it out of her system) and begins training with John so that she will be prepared for their job.
While training with John, Niema becomes attracted to him, but John is so good at 'acting' she can't read whether he feels the same way as her because with John he shows nothing.
They're mission is to go to France, make contact with an arms dealer by the name of Louis Ronsard. Niema is to get herself invited to his Villa, where she will meet up with John and she will plant a bugging device, and he will access and steal all information concerning the explosive.
This where the story really gets good!
The chemistry between Niema and John is explosive!
Part of their cover is that John is to be introduced to Niema at Ronsard's party, at his Villa, and become immediately enamored with her. When they first kiss (as apart of their cover) the kiss soon becomes out of control because they both have been keeping their true feelings for each other under such control that now they've reached their breaking point.
Niema steps back shocked by her response to him, but also very wary, because even though physically John's response to her is passionate, in his eyes, He looks as though he's just doing his job (little does she know that he's losing his control with her as well, he's just better at hiding it).
My favorite part of the book however, is when Niema and John are in Ronsard's office completing their mission, and they see Ronsard heading towards the office on the security monitor, and they have to act fast... and I'll leave it at that, because I don't want to spoil it for anybody.
lets just say,
Reading this story is like reading a book from Robert Ludlum's "Bourne" series.
The storytelling is fantastic! The writing, and characters are wonderful!... and getting to finally see John and Niema lose control and let their passion take over was so worth the fun & excitement!
It's was so easy to get lost in this wonderful world of spies, espionage, intrigue, and of course a kick-ass romance!
Can't wait to read the next, and final book in this series!!
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