Longarm must protect his friend from a town that wants her fans with his tales of future warfare among the stars.   In Shelley's newest novel, Lon Nolan, a young soldier expelled from Earth's prestigious North American Military Academy on trumped-up charges, is seeking to prove his worthiness in the Dirigent Mercenary Corps, where the bloody craft of battle had been refined into an art

Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long is dispatched to a town near the city of El Paso to extradite a prisoner from Mexico. The authorities there, however, aren't too cooperative, and Longarm must bide his time on the American side of the city until his charge is released. When he winds up used for target practice, Longarm must cross the border to find out who wants him dead