New York Times–bestselling Author: Multiple agendas collide and set off an explosion on the Southern border in this thriller from “a superb storyteller” (The Washington Post). Violence and tensions along the U.S.-Mexican border have never been higher, sparked by battles between rival drug lords and an increased flow of illegal migrants. To combat the threat, the United States has executed Operation Rampart: a controversial test base in Southern California run by Major Richter and TALON, his high-tech special operations unit. Their success is threatened by a drug kingpin and migrant smuggler named Ernesto Fuerza. In the guise of a Mexican nationalist going by the name Commander Veracruz, he causes a storm of controversy on both sides of the border, calling for a revolution to take back the northernmost “Mexican states”—also known as the southwestern United States. His real intention, though, is to make it easier to import illegal drugs across the border.  While panic is stirred to a fever pitch by a popular talk-show host, Richter and his force are reassigned to the FBI to investigate the murders of several Border Patrol agents—a mission that will bring him face-to-face with Fuerza and set off a wave of bloodshed that threatens to become an all-out guerrilla war. And lurking behind Fuerza may be an even more powerful puppet master . . .  “The novels of Dale Brown brim with action, sophisticated weaponry and political intrigue.” —San Francisco Chronicle