Showing results by narrator "PJ Ochlan" in All Categories

Welcome to 259 B.C. By law, all debts must be paid by the Ides of March. For men like them, sharp steel was the only acceptable currency. Unless something changed, one would emerge a winner and the other the guest of honor at a funeral. Blood payment might not have been the official objective. But it would not matter to an enraged Alerio Sisera as he clutched a gladius and held a temple voucher aloft.

Neustatter's European Security Services encounters a campaign of industrial sabotage, a pastor who attempts to limit their client base, an espionage ring, and the aftermath of the Dreeson assassination. Old nemeses and new allies complicate matters. Somewhere in Grantville is a missing heiress. There's also a Resistance, and it has cookies. Even repeat business with established clients is complicated, not to mention dangerous. Real life proves more complicated than Neustatter's movies or Astrid's books as NESS looks for common threads. Which incidents are related and which are not?

With the National Guard, private industry, and even a seemingly tranquil farming village caught in an explosive political crossroads all relying on NESS for missions of security, Neustatter and Astrid find themselves pressed to staff, train, and equip the agency while keeping up with their clients' growing requirements in scope and complexity. A simple railway escort mission involves a secretive manufacturing client from Grantville bearing mysterious cargo and a captured fugitive all destined for Magdeburg during the Baltic War . . . what could possibly go wrong?

After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, leaders in China and the United States had high hopes of a lasting partnership between the two countries. More than 120,000 U.S. servicemen deployed to China, where Chiang Kai-shek's government carried out massive programs to provide them with housing, food, and interpreters. But, as Zach Fredman uncovers in The Tormented Alliance, a military alliance with the United States means a military occupation by the United States.

In 1975, Gary Ruckler attends classes at Moscow State University as part of the first American Fulbright program in the USSR. Here he befriends Anna, her boyfriend Zaza, and their enigmatic friend Aslan. When Aslan mysteriously disappears into the mountains of Kazbegi, Georgia, Gary is swept up in events beyond his understanding and control. Fifteen years later, Tamar and Giorgi struggle through the “lost” decade of the 1990s in Tbilisi. Through three civil wars, a refugee crisis, and near-total societal collapse, the pair come of age in the underground arts scene.

Noah Tamino's the sort of healer who bursts into tears whenever you remind him that field mice don't live in little mushroom houses. And now, Gods help us all, he's been chosen as the new Hero-King of Aries. As if Noah didn't have enough on his plate! I mean, come on, his fiancee is gone, and he spent the past month being tortured by House Koschei's mastermind, "Little Astrid" herself. Sadly, there's a chain reaction of disaster and civil war going on, so abandoning the Hero-King business is out of the question.

On the heels of the most emotionally tumultuous mission of his life, American covert operative Chase Fulton is forced to bury the past and lead his team into the most high-risk assignment of their careers. The world of wealth, privilege, and prestige on the island paradise of St. Barts is but a thin veil beneath which an intricate web of deception, intrigue, and unthinkable danger boils and flourishes.

Caught between an infamous bomb maker and a dying CIA spy, Bridger and the Spy Devils fight for their survival while preventing a radioactive disaster. The CIA’s former terrorist hunter, Wes Henslow, pleads with Bridger to help find the only terrorist he never caught. Bridger agrees, but May, his mother and CIA handler, orders Bridger not to assist their friend.

The Arctic ice is melting, the waters are warming, and Russian president Nicolai Gorshkov is one step closer to monopolizing the oil industry and funding his expansionism plans past Ukraine and Latvia. Russian-backed attacks have shut down the Suez Canal and other key shipping routes, making it nearly impossible for the West and the Middle East to transport oil. With nothing less than oil futures and the global economy at stake, one man slips out of the shadows to stop Gorshkov's maniacal plans: Dan Reilly, a freelance State Department and CIA consultant.

He's the fixer for the world's most elite athletes. But his own mind is his biggest threat. Dr. Andrew Beck is the golden boy of sports psychology. He's a celebrity shrink, the go-to whisperer for millionaire athletes battling trauma, addiction, and the crushing weight of expectation. From violent hockey stars to reckless power forwards, Andrew coaxes them back from the brink and into championship form.

Born in Shen Village in Southeast China, Shen Fuyu grew up in a family of farmers. Years later, Shen, now a writer, returned to his hometown to capture the village's rich history in the face of industrialization. Through his own childhood memories and those of his ancestors, Shen resurrects the working life of Shen Village through interlinked stories of 15 artisans as their lives intersect over the course of a century.

Isaac Sacolick, a technology leadership expert and a former CIO and CTO, delivers a hands-on guide to help technology and business professionals at all stages of their careers acquire the skills necessary to drive transformative change. With an eye-opening collection of stories and more than fifty lessons, Sacolick gives listeners a view into what goes on behind-the-scenes in leading digital transformations. From tense IT Ops conference calls to make-or-break executive meetings, Sacolick presents the challenging scenarios faced by product, technology, and data leaders.

Having spent the years since his potentially catastrophic injury growing stronger physically, as well as mentally, and as Chase takes one more stride toward mirroring the achievements of his mentor, he is faced with a fight that may leave his already battle-torn body with wounds too deep to heal and covered by the blood of a man who may have never existed. Loyalties are tested, and fortitude is tried, as three decades of history are torn apart in search of a man who could be nothing more than a lie told to destroy one of America’s greatest warriors.

Era Gualtieri—public enemy #1, swashbuckler, provocateur, hero, villain, philosopher, madman—is about to have the worst Holiday Season of his life. For starters: Prince Raphael Koschei, the so-called Hero of Luminar, is dead. Good riddance and all, but the assassin was none other than Era's bestie and perpetual "it's complicated," Liv. As the Empire mourns its problematic fave, Era sees his chance to put a stop to House Koschei's "Island" conspiracy. But when he finds what he seeks, let's just say too much truth can be a biohazard.

As former American covert operative Chase Fulton struggles to adapt to life on the sidelines following a catastrophic injury, he finds himself waging a battle like none he’s ever faced.

From one of the foremost medievalists of our time, a groundbreaking work on history and memory that goes well beyond the life of this influential saint.

In the aftermath of a mission on American soil that left covert operative Chase Fulton and his elite team of tier-one operators battle weary, severely injured, and questioning why and how another American team could’ve become so corrupted, they each find themselves examining what makes them not only willing, but yearning to lick their wounds, pick up their weapons, and return to the battlefield.

Four "delightfully twisted" scripted stories by Erin Mallon are now available as a bundle.

Connecting the dots between political violence and "law and order" politics, Chard reveals how American counterterrorism emerged in the 1970s from violent conflicts over racism, imperialism, and policing that remain unresolved today.

When American covert operative Chase Fulton returns home from his most recent mission battling a company providing weapons of war to the highest bidder regardless of their alliances, he finds himself haunted by a cryptic warning from the deputy director of Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency. “There is someone close to you who is not what you believe them to be.”