The Charlemagne Files Series

Why don't you kill the guards and let us fight our way out?   They grew up together and are distantly related. But can three such different personalities form an effective fighting team? When a car bomb leaves Misha orphaned at nineteen, his life changes its trajectory. The possibilities of a privileged youth fade to a dismal choice between a brutal death or a violent life. He will never know peace and safety again.   Misha's distant cousins, Louis and Vasily, are more accustomed to danger. They have the skills for it. But it is not long before they realize that it is Misha who has the judgment necessary to keep all three of them alive.   A Lighter Shade of Night is a collection of short stories about the early days of Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints. The Cold War stories illuminate the exploits, personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of the three men on the early team as well as their long-time American handler, Frank.    

After investigation came retribution, vindictive and indiscriminate.   It's the early 1980's and the height of the Cold War when Steve Donovan, despite a checkered past, troubled marriage, and no prospects, lands a job at the very bottom of the intelligence world. He finds a kind of happiness in being involved with shady people in unsavory activities until he is suddenly promoted over the heads of fifty-nine colleagues by his Section chief, who is himself being promoted.   Steve's boss Frank is handing him the responsibility for Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by Western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints. The deadly team has filled several drawers at a Chicago morgue and Steve and Frank fly out to investigate why.   With three days left until Christmas, their investigation uncovers tragedies, past, present, and perhaps, yet to come in their own futures. Frank appears to be the next target, but is Steve also? It is difficult to tell because truth is hard to come by and deception obscures everything and everyone they speak to. Loyalties are hidden, and moral codes are nonexistent.   Can Steve convince Charlemagne not to kill his boss without putting himself in the crosshairs of their revenge? And just how far is he willing to go to save the innocent?   Cetus Wedge is the second novel in K.A. Bachus's fast-paced Charlemagne Files series chronicling the lives of a team of deadly Cold War intelligence operatives over three decades.

She was an expert shot and an expert fighter, and she was utterly helpless against the fury that held her.   It is the early 90s and the Berlin Wall is down. At the insistence of her family, Mara Sobieski has a safe job in a quiet corner of the intelligence world, until Sergei Pavlenko asks for her help. As the USSR becomes the Russian Federation, Sergei finds himself in danger from his former colleagues in the KGB.   The information he holds imperils a diverse collection of interests held by government functionaries and more importantly, by Mara and her family, who lead Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints.   Mara agrees to help Sergei, much to the disgust of her brother and his friends, who consider him the worst of their enemies. Her intervention forces them all into a harrowing race to San Antonio, where her family's security and her own life will depend on Sergei's information and the fighting skills of the team.   Will Charlemagne win the quest for the file that threatens Mara Sobieski's life?   State of Nature is the fifth novel in K.A. Bachus's fast-paced Charlemagne Files series chronicling the lives of a team of deadly Cold War intelligence operatives over a span of three decades.

"A woman should be able to ask for what she wants."   It's 1993, and Air Force Captain Claire Nolan hopes to be one of the first women to fly a combat fighter aircraft. She has no intention of letting Steve Donovan's captivating brown eyes derail her ambitions, but his team could wreck more than her career. Steve is a member of Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by Western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints.   Claire is appointed as support liaison when the team arrives on Okinawa to eliminate a threat to Steve's young son. She supplies dinner and winds up playing a part in a plan to elicit the information the team needs to save the child.   During a frenetic and bewildering two-day period, while Charlemagne tries to identify an enemy asset, it becomes increasingly clear to Claire that she has become the bait on a deadly hook.   Swallow is the seventh novel in K.A. Bachus's fast-paced Charlemagne Files series. Will Claire fly a fighter? Will she get her man? Will she live to do either?

Mack might cut your throat but with faultless etiquette.   Christine Barton, a Vermont state trooper, witnesses a murder while walking her dog in a Montreal park on a bright summer morning in 1999. She takes refuge from the killer in a safe house full of spies and deadly operatives who could be allies but seem more like enemies. She soon understands she is not free to leave.   Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by Western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints, has been tasked with tracing and destroying a well-funded network of political assassins. They must sift reality from deception in a bewildering kaleidoscope of information and agendas and will use Christine to gain the advantage regardless of the cost to her.   With deep, mutual distrust, Christine and Charlemagne work together in the narrow space of their shared interests surrounded by the chaos of a true goat rope.   Goat Rope is the tenth volume in K.A. Bachus's fast-paced Charlemagne Files series chronicling the lives of a team of deadly Cold War intelligence operatives over a span of three decades.

I wondered what crime a professional killer could commit that his closest friends would find unforgivable.   It is the mid 1980's and Barbara Kemp shatters another glass ceiling as she becomes the US babysitter for Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints. She arrives in-country for her first assignment in support of an allied government.   An American officer is being used as bait to lure a deep cover IRA explosives expert into the light where Charlemagne will eliminate him — if they do not annihilate each other first. Barbara must deal with a mystifying lunacy in the dangerous men around her while she struggles to find a way to save the American bait, the operation, and the team itself.   Will this promotion be the end of Barbara's career? Or the end of her life?   Lion Tamer is the fourth novel in K.A. Bachus's fast-paced Charlemagne Files series chronicling the lives of a team of deadly Cold War intelligence operatives over a span of three decades.

It was the moment of disaster, when silence gives the boundary between peace and violence.   Alexandra Dolnikov is a twenty-year-old chemistry major at a Chicago university who might, if she works hard, graduate by 1974. She struggles to get along at home and thinks she has figured out how to manage work, school and a tiny apartment, all on her own, until her parish priest asks a favor. She cannot refuse, though she doubts that the missing icon he is looking for could actually be miraculous and is sure her intervention will fail.   While fulfilling her promise to the priest, she meets a captivating man who draws her ever deeper into a world of secrets she did not know existed. That it is also a world of violence and treachery becomes ever more clear to her as she learns the costs of her smallest decisions.   In her search for what may or may not be a miraculous icon, Alex becomes the bait in a plan to stop a deadly terrorist attack. Her life depends now on Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints, and they are every bit as dangerous as their targets.   Trinity Icon is the first novel in K.A. Bachus's fast-paced Charlemagne Files series chronicling the lives of a team of deadly Cold War intelligence operatives over a span of three decades.

"You do not have a future if you do not stay alive now."   It is the early 90s and Frank Cardova, his wife Maryann and his daughter Theresa, have become targets of an associate of the vory, Russian thieves under the code working for a foreign intelligence operative. They turn for help to Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints.   The team, or rather its leader's wife Alex has another agenda concerning Theresa, whose long ago act of mercy has been twisted into a grudge by its recipient, a childhood friend turned vory killer. Alex hopes Theresa's past attraction for her stepson will re-ignite. But first, her husband and his team must save Theresa's life.   As Charlemagne struggles to eliminate the threat to Frank and his family, the team uncovers evidence that this intersection of crime and intelligence threatens one of their own and perhaps the team's very existence.   Vory is the sixth book in K.A. Bachus's fast-paced Charlemagne Files series. How many of their own lives could it cost Charlemagne to rescue Frank's family?

"I've never known Mack to make a threat he was not prepared to carry out," I said carefully. "He doesn't bluff."   Frank Cardova provides logistic support for a highly effective team of deadly operatives known as Charlemagne, the premier freelance specialist team used by western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints. Mack, the team's knife-wielding leader, and his son Charlie arrive on Frank's doorstep bringing chaos, terror and violence with them.   The last thing Frank ever wants to see is Louis, the volatile marksman of the team, anywhere near his home, let along sitting at the kitchen table drinking a martini meant for him and flirting with his wife. For Frank, the men of Charlemagne have become the ultimate houseguests from hell.   Mack offers Frank's subordinate, Steve Donovan, a chance to join the team after the fallout of a recent disaster puts his young family at risk. As Frank watches Steve turn into a killer and his own wife and daughter discover what his thirty-year career has been all about, he helps the team save the lives of Steve's family while dreading the danger to his own.   Can Frank trust anyone in his immediate circle?

"You must see your plan to shield her from us has failed."   Jade Wilmerton runs a library for an intelligence outfit. It's 1997 and Skosh, a shadowy ops guy in her organization, takes her as his administrative assistant on a private flight to Lithuania. Jade hopes for a little adventure and maybe something more from this appealing man, but his irascible, profane, and worried manner is strictly business. "They're dangerous," he tells her, without explaining anything, least of all who 'they' may be. She is pretty sure he is not all that safe, either.   While Skosh might be dangerous, the group of assassins he introduces to Jade is certainly lethal. Charlemagne is the premier freelance specialist team used by Western governments for black operations conducted without fingerprints. Each team member is highly skilled in the business of death, but this time the odds favor their target, an American millionaire who has been gathering a small but significant fighting force in a forest near the Baltic Sea.   Information will be Charlemagne's primary weapon in this op. The success of the operation, the future of the team, and the life of her boss will depend upon a librarian's ability to adapt in an alien world.   Quiet Move is the eighth novel in K.A. Bachus's fast-paced Charlemagne Files series. Will Jade Wilmerton succeed in keeping the team's hacker out of her library's computer? Will she survive long enough to have a chance with Skosh? Or will even that elusive hope be complicated by the operational needs of Charlemagne?