Fear is the fastest-growing crop on Haulover, a newly colonized planet where someone-or something-is destroying isolated farmhouses. The unseen enemy strikes without warning, then disappears, leaving no stone standing, no trace of families or farm animals. When the Confederation receives a desperate plea for help, it's time to send in the Marines.

Impossible missions are a matter of course for Fourth Force Recon's second platoon squads, and the situation at Haulover-with no witnesses and few clues-is no exception. But this assignment turns out to be even tougher and bloodier than usual because the devastation is a ploy-to lure the nine Marines into a trap, and to force them to bust the Confederation's terrible secret wide open.

And as for the Skinks lying in ambush on Haulover, they have no idea what trouble is . . . until they go up against a few good Marines.

Autorentext

David Sherman is a former U.S. Marine and the author of eight novels about Marines in Vietnam, where he served as an infantryman and as a member of a Combined Action Platoon. He is also the author of the military fantasy series Demontech.

Dan Cragg enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1958 and retired with the rank of sergeant major twenty-two years later. He is the author of Inside the VC and the NVA (with Michael Lee Lanning), Top Sergeant (with William G. Bainbridge), and, The Soldier's Prize. Until recently, he was an analyst for the Defense Department.