ThomasLMote
Shepard's Watch Series: Book One
A raging inferno at the Kremlin Armory, an Orthodox priest found murdered in his own church, and a series of mysterious bombings in Eastern Europe brings the American intelligence community to a sobering realization: someone is trying to start a war.
As tensions in the region escalate, Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR) assembles a task force and gives one its most decorated Special Forces officers, Maj. Jay Shepard, a simple mission: find the parties behind this madness and do whatever it takes to stop them.
It all starts wrong, and as the CIA, the newly formed Defense Clandestine Service, and the FBI all activate assets in support, a host of foreign intelligence services and the ever-present rivalries inside the U.S. government services threaten to derail the mission before it ever leaves the station. As Shepard's handlers hoped he would, he takes his operation off grid, reaching out to a reclusive billionaire with some very dark family secrets and a private army that's been implicated in dozens of black market arms deals.
The more the Task Force succeeds, the more awkward the revelations become for the federal agencies pulled into the public scandals and congressional hearings back home. Worse, Shepard's team uncovers disturbing evidence related to an intelligence leak threatening national security networks. When his Task Force is recalled in order to be disbanded, Shepard is forced to choose between his chain of command and the oath he took to protect his country.
He's been a tactical savant most of his life, confounding and frustrating even the most brilliant war planners with his ability to defy the odds: now he's been sanctioned as an enemy of the state. Betrayed by the people he served and hunted by the men he trained, Shepard now has to decide exactly how far he'll go and who he'll cross in order to complete his mission.