Ascent from Darkness — Steven E. Wilson

An international thriller of espionage, war, and love, interwoven with profound, world-changing events. Reluctant CIA operative Stone Waverly travels a shadowy trail from Odessa to Cologne to Amsterdam to Damascus, as agents with terror links evade an international dragnet. Everyone is suspect and nothing is as it seems, in a land where Islamic extremists determined to plunge civilization into darkness battle with special forces, Kurds, and Arabs intent on restoring hope to a world gone mad. Ascent from Darkness was a finalist for the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in Action Adventure.