The Deserter

Four years ago Reese Tallis walked off a forward operating base in Kandahar and never came back. She didn't have a choice about what happened to her on the way out. She has been running from it ever since. Now a turned warlord is collecting a village in the mountains, and the only person standing between him and the population is a small unit under Lieutenant Ansel Brand — the officer Reese left behind, still human, still furious, still the best soldier she has ever worked with. They hate each other. They also move like a single weapon, and the valley doesn't care which of them was right. When the warlord offers to trade the village for Reese, she says yes. When Ansel refuses to let her, he does something that can't be undone. Sixty-two survivors, one truck, and two people with a four-year argument that finally gets finished.