Lieutenant Colonel Michael Parson has seen plenty of action lately, so he’s happy with his new assignment as safety officer at a Kyrgyzstan air base. It’s a pretty laidback way to spend the next year.

Or so he thought. On his second day, a C-27 crashes on the runway with a load of electronic gear—and opium. Recruiting his battle companion Sergeant Major Sophia Gold as interpreter, he investigates not only the crash but the source of the cargo, and the answers they find will lead them into a conflict as lethal as any they have known.

A new Balkan war is brewing, driven by a man of ruthless ambition. Parson himself flew during the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, so he’s known their horror firsthand. But neither he nor Gold has seen anything like what’s about to happen now.