Carl Heller

Meet Carl Heller, a maverick son of the modern West. Heller's a man you can turn to when your life's in danger - if you can get him off his butt. Born in the Colorado high country, he's a part-time rancher who savors a laid-back approach to living. But Heller's also a law school dropout with a head for justice that's as hard as the Rockies and with a mile-wide stubborn streak. So he hires out to hopeless cases, hurtling into action when some big guy is putting the squeeze on a little guy - or gal. Heller fights hard and plays harder.

Somebody was stealing the most precious survival resource in the dry grass country: water. These were no ordinary thieves, however: these rain rustlers were taking the water right out of the skies with a secret cloud seeding operation that threatened to wipe out everybody in the San Luis Valley. At first Heller thought it was all a joke, until a club-wielding pachuco ambushed him, reduced his bike to scrap and left him bruised and bleeding. Heller comes back with a Smith and Wesson and a loving lady pilot....

Heller was just a big boy from the high country and he was having a rough time understanding all the fuss over protecting the secret development of a hot, new video game. Heller soon learned it wasn't a fun game, it was deadly trouble. The game could pay off in a fabulous fortune for G&C Electronics in Colorado Springs high-tech gulch and somebody was racing to steal the program. They were willing to destroy the company and anyone who got in their way. It was Heller's job to turn the tables and do some destroying.

They were young, not so innocent, but certainly unprepared for being "turned out" into the sleazy hell of a no-limits porno playground in Reno. There, tender flesh commanded the highest buck, but a young life was cheap. When a "clean" brothel owner hired Heller to wipe out those preying on the unsuspecting under-age, Heller willingly sunk himself into the dark, slimy underground. Whores, drugs, blood-soaked profits, the whole girl-trade pipeline made Heller sick. Trying to shut it down could get him snuffed.

Heller is caught up in a dangerous crossfire as he cozies up to the local "coyote," a slimeball that takes desperate Mexicans across the river in the dead of night for a heavy fee and then sets them up to be robbed, beaten, and even raped by bandidos. The frightened prey are powerless, nobody cares, except Heller, and that ole mountain boy knows more than one way to skin a coyote.

Heller's friend is looking forward to a million dollars - his prize quarter horse is the overwhelming favorite to win the Liquid Gold Futurity. But someone has other ideas, sinister ideas, and that's where Heller comes in. He agrees to protect the horse, for a fat fee and any willing woman. Heller is a novice at the track, but the mountain boy learns fast. And if the "accident" happens, he's ready to spring into action, even if it involves taking on organized crime in the state of New Mexico.