BEHIND THE LINES
World War II. On the island of Mindanao, the Philippines, a man calling
himself "General" Fertig has set himself up as a guerrilla leader to
harass the Japanese. Army records show that the only officer named
Fertig in the Philippines is a reserve lieutenant colonel of the Corps
of Engineers, reported MIA on Luzon. Still, the reports filtering out
are interesting, and it's Marine Lieutenant Ken McCoy's mission to sneak
behind the lines and find out if Fertig is for real. With McCoy is a
motley group put together as a compromise between the warring factions
of Douglas MacArthur and the OSS chief Bill Donovan. Together, McCoy and
his men steal into the heart of enemy territory and there, amid
firefights and jungle camps, encounter more than they had bargained for.
Before they're done, each will undergo a test of his own personal
mettle--with results that will surprise even the most hardened of them.
IN DANGER'S PATH
Desperate to find someone to unite the battling interests of General
Douglas MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and OSS Chief "Wild Bill"
Donovan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt puts Fleming Pickering in
charge of the OSS's Pacific operations. Immediately, two urgent missions
fall into his lap: to contact and rescue a band of former American
servicemen and their dependents on the run from the Japanese in the Gobi
Desert of Mongolia; and at the same time, to set up a weather station in
the Gobi to help direct planned aerial attacks against Japan. Pickering
has a free hand to use whomever he pleases, and he is soon surrounded by
many of the Marines on whom he has come to rely during the war: men like
Ken McCoy, Ed Banning, Jake Dillon, Ernie Zimmerman, and--much to his
surprise--a certain hotshot pilot named Malcolm Pickering, his son.
Together they will venture in terra very much incognita--and with luck
they may even come out alive....
