Nuke Down (Troy Barclay/Amber Neilson Thriller Series Book 5)
When a twin engine jet airplane zooms over Troy Barclay's head as he's rounding up cattle in the Galiuro Mountains and crashes a couple miles ahead of him, he figures everyone aboard is dead. But when he finds the plane, he also finds an injured woman on board who says she's a CIA agent and that there is a suitcase nuclear bomb on board. Troy finds the nuke and it is no big thing until he opens the case and finds the crash activated the bomb and it is counting down to explode. The woman tells him the men on board the plane were Al Qaeda and they were going to drop it on Tucson, Arizona until she cut off the plane's fuel and it crashed. They go back to Troy's ranch but find Al Qaeda has already blocked the roads to town and they have to take horses across the mountains to reach help. Along the way they pick up a tough woman rancher and a larcenous State mountain lion hunter who help them fight their way across the mountains, relentlessly pursued by dozens of Al Qaeda fighters who have come across the border from Mexico. When Amber Neilson, Troy's partner, finds out he is in trouble, she flies to Arizona and hikes across the mountains, hoping to catch up with and help Troy. Troy and his two companions are hampered by the wounded CIA agent and have to ambush the Al Qaeda fighters several times to keep them at Bay. With dozens of Al Qaeda fighters closing on them, they make a stand in an old cliff dwelling. But when the Al Qaeda leader captures the CIA agent and the woman rancher, Troy tapes several sticks of dynamite to the nuke case and gives the leader a choice. Give up the women or lose the bomb. The Al Qaeda leader takes off to meet a helicopter to pass off the bomb but keeps the CIA woman hostage. In the meantime, Amber hikes across rugged mountains and free-climbs sheer cliff after sheer cliff to reach Troy's side. In the end, Troy beats the Al Qaeda leader in a savage fight but then finds himself the victim of a terrifying betrayal. Only Amber can save him but will she arrive in time?
