Betrayal

Nolan stood over him. Whatever damage Nolan had done to him, and Evan realized that possibly it was severe enough to be life-threatening, the fight had not been without its own consequences for the commando. From the way Nolan was moving, he was clearly hurt, physically compromised. With one arm so badly injured, it took him a couple of tries to rack a round into the chamber.

Evan had no option but to attack again, and he twisted and kicked, hitting Nolan below his knees, knocking him down. Evan scrambled, grabbing for Nolan's gun hand with both of his. Getting ahold of it. With his one free hand, Nolan swung in tight again and again, hard jabs to the side of Evan's head.

But even to protect his head, Evan didn't dare release his grip on Nolan's gun hand. To let go of the gun was to die.

Grabbing the barrel with all of his strength, grunting with the exertion, he finally lifted enough to get the gun and the hand that held it off the ground. And then he twisted it, and twisted again.

And at last the gun was free and in his hand, the barrel now tight against Nolan's forehead.

It was over.

Nolan went limp, the fight suddenly all out of him. He held his arms out against the floor in an I-give-up gesture. For a full second that felt like a minute, neither man moved.

And then in a lightning strike, Nolan screamed and threw a last jab in the direction of Evan's head.

And the gun went off.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In preparation for this book, I spoke to many veterans of the fighting in Iraq and read a lot of books about that country and the war that, as this book goes to press, is still claiming American and Iraqi lives every day. I'd particularly like to acknowledge and thank Mike Dufresne for his early insights into the role of the National Guard in Iraq; Don Currier for his general overview of the war and his terrific photographs; T. Christian Miller, author of Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq; Aaron Moore, First Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps; Craig Denton, and Rick Tippens.

Other books that contributed in one way or another to Betrayal

include Blood Stripes: The Grunt's View of the War in Iraq, by David J. Danelo; Ambush Alley: The Most Extraordinary Battle of the Iraq War, by Tim Pritchard; and Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror, by Robert Young Pelton. In spite of all of this research, it is of course possible that there may be inaccuracies and/or errors of one kind or another in this book, and any of these are the fault of the author.

As with all of my other Dismas Hardy books, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my great pal Al Giannini, an assistant district attorney in San Mateo County. Al is brilliant, tireless, and endlessly enthusiastic, and he contributed mightily to every part of this book from its inception to its final draft. His knowledge both of the law and of human nature is second to no one's, and whatever verisimilitude this work contains, particularly in the legal realm, is because of Al's keen eye and sagacious judgment.