Operation Firebrand--Crusade — Jeff Gerke

They came in broad daylight.

They burned our huts. Killed our men and boys.

What will become of my sisters, mothers, and me?

Will I live and die a slave of the one who stole me?

It's been only four weeks since former Navy SEAL Jason Kromer led the Firebrand team to Kazakhstan to rescue a group of orphan girls, and already there is a new mission.

The world is like that -- always serving up a new violence against innocents.

This time, Muslim slavers have raided a village in southern Sudan, stealing away a new crop of human slaves and forced wives.

Most of the time when we hear about things like this, all we can do is shake our heads.

Not anymore.

The Firebrand team exists to right wrongs like these. There are Sudanese girls and women sitting in slavers' homes right now, and Jason and the team go wheels up to take them back.

The Firebrand team hit their stride when they were in Kazakhstan. But Africa is different, and Jason's more than passing interest in the two beautiful women on the team threatens to distract him from the mission.

It doesn't help that they're going up against Muslim extremists -- like the ones who murdered Rachel's father, which was the thing that made her become a Mossad assassin in her former life.

Now she's face to face with the same sort of man, and she may just go off the reservation to settle the score.

The slave situation turns out to be worse than they'd feared, and the Firebrand team decides they need to do more than just rescue a handful of slaves and go home.

Between Rachel's fury and the team's vendetta against the slavers, this mission is turning into a full-blown crusade.

The Operation Firebrand novels are Christian military fiction.

In the tradition of pulp adventure novels.

• Operation Firebrand -- Origin


• Operation Firebrand -- Crusade


• Operation Firebrand -- Deliverance

** These novels were originally published in 2002�"4. **

Excerpt from Operation Firebrand -- Crusade

The scars in the man's forehead were deep but exquisitely done, Jason saw. Four furrows arched forward from the ears and came together in four perfect Vs between his eyebrows. He stood solemnly as Jason approached.

“Hello,” Jason said. “Um, we didn't really shoot those guys, not with real bullets. They're just asleep.”

The man wrinkled his brow, constricting the scars. He spoke in a deep voice, but Jason couldn't know the words. He seemed a little agitated, but not afraid. He pointed toward the soldiers with the stick he'd used for digging.

“Jason?”

Jason turned toward the voice. It was Rachel, wiping her hands on a bloody towel and trotting toward them. “What is it, Miss Bloom?”

“No need for the fake name,” she said, walking forward slowly. “He doesn't understand and he sure doesn't care.” She dropped the towel on the dirt. “Would you like a little help here?”

Jason deflated. “Please!”

She said something that immediately caught the man's attention. He began talking to her quickly and gesticulating with the stick. Rachel held her hands up and asked a question. The man responded, and then they both started speaking another language altogether.

Chris stepped up to Jason's shoulder. “Arabic.”

After a particularly long string of words from Rachel, the man groaned loudly and fell to his knees. He crawled toward her, speaking urgently through sudden tears.

Dinka came running. In seconds, Rachel was surrounded by everyone in the village. Three boys ran over to Dau and Akot, then came shrieking back.

Rachel's voice rose above the ruckus. Jason watched her in awe. Here she was in what seemed to be the most godforsaken spot on earth speaking like a native to a band