The Department of Defense loses a U.S. Supreme Court battle with environmental organizations over the clean up of nuclear waste, left from underground bomb tests on Alaska's Amchitka Island.
Shortly after the court decision, a massive earthquake at Amchitka, destroys the waste material and kills military contractors who were setting up to remove it. Russia uses the destruction to spread disinformation, claiming the U.S. was staging new, nuclear missiles in the Aleutians, raising international tensions.
Meanwhile, resource development devotees and conservationists are anxiously waiting, and preparing to battle over the outcome of a remanded part of the Supreme Court case that could shut down most of the fossil fuel extraction industry.
Operation Wind Storm, the third novel in the Zilla Gillette series finds our intrepid reporter, as she often is, right in the middle of this conflict as she works to report the emerging facts. Gillette tracks the explosive tensions between environmentalists and development proponents over the growing divide between those who want to end resource development in the name of slowing climate change and those who want to continue working in the fossil fuel extraction industry.
The carbon fuel fans in Alaska are under the leadership of a former Arkansas televangelist shyster, known as Jerry Justice, who enlists the lethal Jamie Lynn Carter, fresh out of prison for the murder of militia leader, General Alex Burke, (Zilla's first assignment in American Home Wrecker).
With funding from a Russian operative, determined to further disrupt and divide Americans, Justice and Carter whip up a deadly fury in Alaska and across the country. Death threats drive environmental organization leaders into hiding, culminating in chaos and a suicidal plane crash in Anchorage during a single day of deadly clashes. A battle over the future of energy and Democracy in America.
Ten years after the battle at Single Oak, the four groups of Oregon are still reeling from its after effects. Territory lines were drawn and stories have been told, those who were heroes once are legends now. In order to avoid new conflicts, solstice gatherings between the groups' leaders were organized-but will they be enough?
***
Phoenix has grown up only ever knowing two things. One, her group and fathers are the saviors of Oregon. Two, The Reaper's are not to be trusted. So when a mysterious stranger rescues her after a hunting trip gone wrong turns out to be none other than her mortal enemy she begins to wonder, are they all as bad as they seem?
The death of Stephan has begun to deteriorate The Reaper's from the inside out. Infighting over who should be their next leader has created countless seasons of lacking supplies and structure. A lack of prey follows a famine. Strong leadership is in order and although Gerald can provide it, debate and rumors are spread about his chosen companion-Aleu, Stephan's once respected apprentice, now glued to his side in a relationship they never wanted-with no say in the matter.
The only person who The Reaper's can put their hope into is Hawk, their new general, a powerful man willing to do anything to keep his group thriving. Hawk is torn between keeping his group safe and his own ambition, Aleu is tortured with a constricting life they hate and Phoenix wonders if she can truly trust her new acquaintances.
Now the three must make a decision. Will pushing aside the past and working together to make peace be worth turning their backs on their groups or is blood the only cure for the misdeeds of the past?
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Story rating: 17+
Content warnings: Childhood trauma, subtext of grooming, strong language, violence and gore
This can hypothetically be read as a stand alone but it's recommended to read the original series first.