From #1 New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author Brad Thor, four deadly women from the top-secret Athena Project join Delta Force as they undertake one of the nation’s most dangerous assignments. The world’s most elite counterterrorism unit has just taken its game to an entirely new level. And not a moment too soon... From behind the rows of razor wire, a new breed of counterterrorism operator has emerged. Just as skilled, just as fearsome, and just as deadly as their colleagues, Delta Force’s newest members have only one thing setting them apart—their gender. Part of a top-secret, all-female program codenamed The Athena Project, four of Delta’s best and brightest women are about to undertake one of the nation’s deadliest assignments. When a terrorist attack in Rome kills more than twenty Americans, Athena Team members Gretchen Casey, Julie Ericsson, Megan Rhodes, and Alex Cooper are tasked with hunting down the Venetian arms dealer responsible for providing the explosives. But there is more to the story than anyone knows. In the jungles of South America, a young US intelligence officer has made a grisly discovery. Surrounded by monoliths covered with Runic symbols, one of America’s greatest fears appears to have come true. Simultaneously in Colorado, a foreign spy is close to penetrating the mysterious secret the US government has hidden beneath Denver International Airport. As Casey, Ericsson, Rhodes, and Cooper close in on their target, they will soon learn that another attack—one of unimaginable proportions—has already been set in motion, and the greatest threat they face may be the secrets kept by their own government. "Thor nails it. A thriller both men and women will love." --James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of The Doomsday Key "Think 007 in stilettos and you've got the women of The Athena Project . The thriller genre just got shaken and stirred." - Sandra Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tough Customer Brad Thor is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five thrillers, including Edge of Honor , Black Ice ( ThrillerFix Best Thriller of the Year), Near Dark (one of Suspense Magazine ’s Best Books of the Year), Backlash (nominated for the Barry Award for Best Thriller of the Year), Spymaster (“One of the all-time best thriller novels” — The Washington Times ), The Last Patriot (nominated Best Thriller of the Year by the International Thriller Writers association), and Blowback (one of the “Top 100 Killer Thrillers of All Time” —NPR). Visit his website at BradThor.com and follow him on Facebook @BradThorOfficial, on Instagram @RealBradThor, and on X @BradThor. Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1 PARAGUAYAN CHACO TRIPLE-BORDER “SANCTUARY” PARAGUAYAN CHACO PRESENT DAY The heat was unbearable. Ryan Naylor was drenched with sweat and the butt of his Glock pistol chafed against the small of his back. Some might have said it served him right. Doctors shouldn’t be carrying weapons; even here. But Ryan Naylor wasn’t just a doctor. As the thirty-two-year-old surgeon slapped another mosquito trying to drain the blood from his neck, he wondered if he was being led into a trap. “How much farther?” he asked in Spanish. “Not much,” said one of the men in front of him. It was the same answer he’d been given repeatedly since they’d gotten out of their Land Cruisers to push deeper into the jungle on foot. In the canopy of trees above, multiple species of birds and monkeys called down, upset at the alien presence. Half of Naylor’s Camelbak was already empty, but he’d yet to see any of the Guaranis he was traveling with raise their canteens. The men marched in small-unit fashion, keeping five yards between each other in case of ambush. They carried rifles that looked like relics from the Gran Chaco War of the 1930s. How they managed to keep them from rusting in the oppressive humidity was beyond him. But as he had learned early on, the Guaranis had a much different way of doing just about everything. Naylor had been sent to Paraguay by the U.S. military to gather intelligence. He was based out of Ciudad del Este, Spanish for City of the East and capital of the Alto Paraná region. Begun as a small village originally named after a Paraguayan dictator, it had grown to a bustling city of over 250,000 and was an illicit paradise, with trafficking in everything from pirated software and DVDs to drugs, weapons, and money laundering. But there was something else that had attracted the U.S. military’s interest. It was also home to a large Middle Eastern community. Upward of twenty thousand of the city’s inhabitants were either themselves from or descendants of people from places like Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza. The city even boasted two Arabic-language television stations. Set against the backdrop of Paraguay’s corrupt government, Ciudad del Este’s Middle Eastern community provided the perfect huma