The Death Machine Contract

The main event is manslaughter.

Someone wanted to overthrow the government of San Sebastian, a country whose tiny army, nonaligned status, and location on the deadly curve of Central America made it ripe for subversion. The first try was an attempted hit on its president on a crowded street in Washington. The second was an invasion from the sea.

Both times the Black Berets were there to keep the worst from happening. But how long could five men and one boy hold out against an army of the world's most skilled assassins? An army with limitless resources--and the patience to keep on killing?

Michael McDowell wrote a number of well-received horror novels, including The Amulet, The Elementals, and the Blackwater series, as well as historical fiction. With Dennis Schuetz, he cowrote four detective novels under the pseudonym Nathan Aldyne and was also active in screenwriting such movies as Beetlejuice, The Nightmare before Christmas, and Thinner. He provided episodes for a number of television horror anthologies, among them Tales from the Darkside. John Preston was a pioneer in the early gay rights movement and publishing initiatives and the author or editor of more than twenty-five acclaimed books. Along with the Black Berets series, he wrote numerous entries in Gold Eagle's Soldiers of Barrabas series under the pseudonym Jack Hild. As Preston McAdam, he wrote the three books in the Michael Sheriff: The Shield series.