A novel inspired by #1 New York Times best-selling author Mark Greaney’s Audible Original drama, Armored.
Joshua Duffy is a Close Protection Agent—a professional bodyguard—and he’s one of the world’s elite operatives. That is, he was until his last mission in Lebanon. Against all odds, Josh got his primary out alive, but the cost was high. Josh lost his lower left leg.
There’s not much call for an elite bodyguard with such an injury. So, Josh has to support his family working as a mall cop in New Jersey. For a man like Josh, this is purgatory on earth, but miracles can occur even in Paramus.
A lucky run-in with an old comrade promises to get Josh back in the field for one last job. The UN is sending a peace mission into the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico, an area so dangerous it’s known as Espinazo del Diablo—the Devil’s Spine. Only a fool would think they could broker peace between the homicidal drug cartels in the region, and only a madman would sign on to keep those fools alive.
“Great fun for the reader….there’s never a dull page.”
“[An] enjoyable thriller from bestseller Mark Greaney….Explosive action sequences follow as Duffy and company seek to retreat to flat land and safety, and Duffy proves to be more than just a hardened military tactician. Readers will hope he’ll be back for an encore.”
“All hell breaks loose and continues at a murderous pace…Mark Greaney is a master at this type of action thriller.”
“Ex-military contractor Josh Duffy, the hero of this enjoyable thriller from bestseller Greaney (the Gray Man series), lost a leg in his last mission and now works as a mall cop in Virginia. Low on self-esteem and struggling to provide for his family, Duffy leaps at the chance to join a private protection squad hired to guard a team of UN representatives venturing deep into Mexico in hopes of bringing peace to warring drug cartels and negotiating the return of 60 shoulder-launched missiles one cartel stole from the Mexican military. Fully aware that his new employer has a checkered reputation, Duffy ignores some early red flags and embarks with 21 other mercenaries into the Sierra Madre, all the while trying to conceal his prosthetic left leg. As the protection unit reaches a treacherous ridge known as the Devil’s Spine, the cartels close in and Duffy discovers that he and his fellow mercs have been deceived from the start about the mission’s true intent. Explosive action sequences follow as Duffy and company seek to retreat to flat land and safety, and Duffy proves to be more than just a hardened military tactician. Readers will hope he’ll be back for an encore.”
“There isn’t another hero out there quite like Josh Duffy, the protagonist of Gray Man author Mark Greaney’s explosive thriller. Thoughtful, principled, and loyal to a fault, Duffy lost his lower left leg while protecting a politician’s wife. After trying to make ends meet as a mall security guard, Greaney’s protagonist agrees to a highly dangerous assignment—going to Mexico to protect the negotiators confronting some powerful drug cartels. Greaney wastes zero time propelling his story along, with bullets flying almost from the jump. But it’s his portrayal of Duffy’s loving partnership with his wife, Nikki, that gets us even more invested in the story. They’re like your favorite couple from down the street—who just happen to run special ops. Armored is the first book in a series, and it’ll make you want to keep listening.”
A hazy sun descended over the azure waters of the Mediterranean and shone orange across the coastline of western Beirut, the early evening glow glinting off the high-end sunglasses worn by most of the fifteen American high-threat security operators spread around the outskirts of the crowd.
The entire protection detail, minus the team’s three drivers, stood in a horseshoe-shaped formation around a parking lot next to a marina and across a wide boulevard from a row of high-rise waterfront apartments. Their protectee stood at a lectern on a stage before an undulating crowd of some five hundred souls who surged and receded, both energized by and contemplative of the words of the speaker, and the shifting movements of the gathering looked like the gentle waters of the Med lapping in the slips of the marina next to them.
On the western side of the horseshoe, a pair of security officers stood just feet apart on a low wall that separated the parking lot from the docks. The men were outfitted similarly to each other, and much the same as the rest of the team: long-sleeved moisture-wicking shirts, body armor, ball caps, jeans. Athletic boots and G-Shock watches, Oakley shades and Peltor headsets.
And rifles across chests festooned with body armor, pouches for ammo, pouches for medical supplies, pouches for radios, and pouches for a myriad of backup weapons and other gear, both lethal and less-than-lethal.
It was the job of these men to meet violence with superior violence, and they stood at the ready.
The pair on the low wall were distinct from each other, however, in that one of them was well into his forties, whereas the other was still in his twenties. Their sector responsibilities included watching both the gathering itself and the boats docked in the slips of the marina behind them, and while doing this, they could also feel the energy from a small group of men standing on the outskirts of the event in the parking lot of a sketchy waterfront hotel adjacent to the rally.
This was a campaign speech, so it was no surprise protesters were there to oppose the candidate, but the malevolence from this group of fifteen or twenty men was palpable.
The people in view were the main burden to the protection detail’s work, but beyond the throngs there were dark apartment windows, shadowy alleyways, and a busy thoroughfare, as well as the marina full of boats and an ocean beyond.
Danger could come from any vector; the Americans knew this well.
