Dale Miller and Charley Payne, the heroes of Wynne's two previous novels (No Other Option
and Warrior in the Shadows
respectively), just happen to be sitting around in separate coffee shops in Minneapolis's Linden Hills neighborhood when all hell breaks loose in this exciting if totally unbelievable military techno-thriller. Two "leggy blondes" arrive on a moped outside an art store where a crowd has gathered to watch a civilian VIP and his bodyguards pick up a painting. As the man and his guards leave the store, the young women draw machine pistols out of courier bags attached to the moped and expertly gun down their target and his entire security team. Miller and Payne, both seasoned former intelligence officers, try to stop the twin assassins from fleeing, but the killers escape on their moped. Drafted by a government program called Dominance Rain, Miller and Payne later pursue the comely assassins in a bizarre scenario that links victims of torture by Saddam Hussein with a huge upcoming bioterrorist action known as Sad Holiday. Wynne's background as a counterterrorism instructor and U.S. air marshal supply the small, sharp details of field work, but that credibility is almost always undermined by his melodramatic tendency to explode over the top. All that's missing is a visit from James Bond's old adversary, SMERSH. Agent, Ethan Ellenberg. (Feb. 24)
