Road to War
3 total works
1938. As Hitler sets his sights on the Sudetenland, not everyone in Britain is willing to appease him. Convinced that the Fuehrer's land-hunger is insatiable, the head of the SIS recruits Cal Jardine to help him prove zechoslovakia is threatened with invasion. Before heading undercover to Prague, however, Jardine must first extricate himself from France, where his attempts to smuggle guns to Spain have been held up by a group of fanatical fascists. In their struggle to overthrow the French government, they are prepared to kill for the sake of procuring weapons. Finally arriving in Czechoslovakia, working undercover for the SIS proves no less dangerous. As jealousy and mutual suspicions within Secret Service ranks make it impossible for Jardine to tell friend from foe, he rediscovers old friends of dubious loyalty and makes new enemies of untested ruthlessness.
1936. Having returned from Abyssinia, soldier of fortune Cal Jardine is convinced by his abhorrence of fascism to travel to Barcelona and help facilitate rival athletic games to the Berlin Olympics. But now he finds himself in Spain as the first shots of civil war ring out; and friendship, love, and political conviction converge to persuade Jardine to stay and once again embroil himself in foreign war. Discovering that the British athletes attending the games are keen to enlist for the fight, Jardine agrees to train them into a professional force. With old army comrade Vince Castellano and his beautiful interpreter Florencia Gardiola by his side, Jardine leads the athletes through the street battles of Barcelona and onto the fighting in the Catalan countryside, acquiring famous friends and effective allies along the way - as well as dangerous enemies. Manfred Drecker is a German communist diehard, who brooks no moral qualms in his deadly determination to see Spain transformed into a socialist state under the rule of the Soviet Union.
Having witnessed his trickery and torture, Jardine is already on his guard against Drecker; but when murderous betrayal blights his previous fortune, Jardine will go to any lengths to seek suitable revenge ...
Having witnessed his trickery and torture, Jardine is already on his guard against Drecker; but when murderous betrayal blights his previous fortune, Jardine will go to any lengths to seek suitable revenge ...
1935: Cal Jardine is a soldier of fortune. Forced to flee Hamburg, where he has been smuggling out Jews, he is recruited by a secretive British committee to smuggle guns from Romania into Abyssinia, threatened with an Italian invasion.
Taken to the Horn of Africa they are then transported over the harsh landscape, a slave trader's route full of bandits, into the hands of the Ethiopian Army. On his travels Jardine acquires more baggage than he cares for, including a beautiful, but difficult American female in search of her archaeologist mother, a drunken British reporter and a daredevil French flyer.
The Ethiopians are ill-equipped to a face the invading Italian army, equipped with tanks, bombers, and poison gas. Trained for war, can Jardine walk away or will he be drawn into a bloody conflict against massive odds, and still save those who now depend on him?
Taken to the Horn of Africa they are then transported over the harsh landscape, a slave trader's route full of bandits, into the hands of the Ethiopian Army. On his travels Jardine acquires more baggage than he cares for, including a beautiful, but difficult American female in search of her archaeologist mother, a drunken British reporter and a daredevil French flyer.
The Ethiopians are ill-equipped to a face the invading Italian army, equipped with tanks, bombers, and poison gas. Trained for war, can Jardine walk away or will he be drawn into a bloody conflict against massive odds, and still save those who now depend on him?