[Ashes 33] • Enemy in the Ashes

"The tide of battle turns when the war is fought on the enemy's home ground. Victory demands the total destruction of the foe's ability to make war. A just peace is achieved only when the last redoubt is taken, the last enemy soldier slain."--Ben Raines. In a shattered world struggling to rebuild, oil is the lifeblood of industry--what remains of it. Now, poised with a nuclear dagger ready to cut that vital lifeline, stands El Farrar, barbaric warlord of the Near East. Leagued in global conspiracy with Claire Osterman, power-grasping President of the recently defeated northern USA, he's threatening to contaminate the vast oil reserves with centuries--long lethal radioactivity, throwing civilization back into a new Dark Age. Backed by the still-free Southern United States of America, betrayed by unholy UN treachery, Ben Raines and his army of battle-hardened raiders call on their own raw courage and determination to attack terror-master Farrar where he lives--and set the region ablaze from Baghdad to Teheran....