Nine Lives

Nine Lives is the fourth novel in the CIA thriller series that continues the story of former CIA operator Woody Stressel and previous KGB agent Ava Volkov's attempt to avoid capture and prolonged torture by the KGB or hired crime syndicate killers. In the prior novel, Meltdown, Woody and Ava flee to the armed compound of Woody's psychotic Uncle Wilbur in the Trans-Pecos Texas Desert. There they find an inhospitable 16-year-old runaway girl who has escaped from being held captive at a desert whorehouse. Leta has a Mensa-plus IQ, a sharp tongue, and a quick trigger finger. Woody's Uncle Wilbur is mysteriously missing.

The compound has many secrets, including underground rooms, enough stored weapons to outfit a small army, and lethal booby traps designed to eliminate Nazi agents whom Woody's paranoid uncle is convinced are seeking to kill him. Woody and Ava give Leta a crash course in street fighting and weapons. When the protection of U.S. Marshals is abruptly withdrawn, paid killers overwhelm the compound and trap Woody, Ava, and Leta in a small underground room. The three are all running short on their allotment of cat lives. There is no choice but to pull the "Armageddon" lever that crazy, but brilliant, Uncle Wilbur had designed to be used as a last resort.

The catastrophic explosion that follows totally destroys the compound and anyone in or near it. No one could possibly survive. In this continuation novel, the scene shifts to the Mexican Baja Peninsula and three young American expats who are running a beachside restaurant. They refuse to pay a local criminal group a weekly fee for protection. All hell promptly breaks loose. The body count climbs rapidly as the expats demonstrate their skill with street fighting and the use of weapons. The story evolves with many twists, turns, and shocks to finish with an utterly unpredictable ending.