Colin Pearce

Several years after a bitter retirement from the Air Force, former fighter pilot Colin Pearce has found a second career: flying Gulfstream and Falcon business jets as a daily contractor. Between the constant travel and his extensive single-malt Scotch whiskey collection, he manages to keep the demons of his past where they belong. It’s a lucrative, solitary existence and that’s the way he likes it. But then he takes a phone call while making a connection in the Atlanta airport and his life changes forever.

Still recovering from injuries gained in his last adventure, Colin Pearce is called back to action to help a friend in need: Sarah Morton, a former monthly mistress for Bachelor Magazine and now the Chief Pilot of the magazine’s flight department. Sarah Morton is one of the very few women from his past who managed to get under his skin and the last thing Pearce needs now is to have those feelings resurrected.

During that time, 50 people have been killed with long-range, precisely-placed shots taken from the assassin’s .50 caliber rifle. The CIA knows the assassin is using a private jet to travel between targets, so Pearce’s handlers call on his unique talents to help them get close to the killer. They send him to Paris as a contract crew member on a Dassault Falcon 7X, and Pearce comes face to face with the deadly assassin in a guise he never sees coming.

After swearing that he would never get involved in another CIA operation, Pearce is drawn into a complex plot that has him working with new and familiar allies. He'll risk his life against unexpected and ruthless enemies he thought were long vanquished, and battle them at the controls of the mighty A-10 Warthog. And along the way, he'll be forced to conquer the violent darkness inside himself or die in the attempt.

It was supposed to be a routine trip to Chicagoland for Colin Pearce. A long-awaited reunion with Sarah Morton, the woman he almost married, and the child they had together. But upon his arrival in the western suburbs, Pearce learns he is there for another, darker purpose.