Clancy meets LeCarre in Matthew Quirk's action-packed new thriller. Former combat medic John Byrne's vacation in southern California is interrupted when FBI agents bring him in for questioning and charge him with burglary, grand larceny, the use of weapons of mass destruction, and a litany of other felonies. It's a case of mistaken identity, but the FBI isn't taking any chances, freezing Byrne's bank accounts and adding his name to the no-fly list. Byrne is left with nowhere to turn-until he's picked up by the very man the government seeks: Thomas Hayes.Byrne recognizes Hayes from the early days of his military service. In the years since, Hayes has become a special ops squad leader as formidable as he is infamous. He claims he and his teammates have been wrongly accused of terrorist acts, and the series of heists they're planning will yield enough evidence to clear their name. But Byrne sees another possibility: these daring heists could lead to a catastrophic attack on American soil.Byrne isn't sure who to believe-Hayes, his former brother in arms, or Colonel Riggs, the leader of the task force charged with bringing Hayes down. Byrne must decide where his allegiances lie-or he and the entire country will face the consequences.

John Hayes is a Special Operations legend who went rogue on a deep-cover mission and betrayed his own soldiers. Disgraced and on the run, he returns to the United States to get back to his wife and daughter and take revenge on his accusers with a series of devastating attacks. Only one man can stop him: Thomas Byrne. He once fought alongside Hayes as a combat medic, but he gave up the gun. Now a surgeon, he moves from town to town, trying to forget his past, until he is called upon by a high-ranking government official to help capture the man he once called a friend. Hayes and Byrne were once as close as brothers, but with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance and nothing as it seems, both men must decide whom to trust--and whom to betray. In a final, explosive battle for justice, they face off along a rifle's cold barrel. "Cold Barrel Zero" brings together the blistering pace of Lee Child, the nonstop action of Brad Thor, and the richly drawn characters and moral stakes of Daniel Silva. An experienced reporter armed with deep behind-the-scenes research into America's Special Operations Forces, Quirk takes the military thriller to a new level of suspense.

John Byrne, a retired army doctor, has been working in the overnight ER of a Washington D.C. hospital, trying to outrun his past. This past includes service in a disgraced Special Ops Command Squad accused of committing an atrocious massacre. Thomas Hayes, the squad's leader who has been in hiding, reaches out to Byrne to enlist his help with a series of heists that will either prove their innocence - or culminate in a catastrophic terrorist attack.