ANN BRIDGES exposes the Achilles' Heel of the 21st century-a lifestyle and national security wholly reliant on China's willingness to process and manufacture critical rare earth metals for Silicon Valley's breakthrough technologies. The sequel to her acclaimed debut novel, Private Offerings, Rare Mettle is based on exhaustive research and insider disclosures about this obscure issue, with the power to undermine suddenly America's military readiness and economic might. When China threatens to withhold critical rare earth metals from U.S. defense contractors and high-tech firms, American military veteran and staunch patriot Paul Freeman refuses to give up the search for an undercover agent with key intelligence, missing in the bowels of China's bureaucracy. An ominous warning from a retired Pentagon advisor alerts him to exercise unorthodox methods to procure the needed components--or risk America's military power.Treated as a pawn in a global game of chess, the missing agent is entrapped by China's decades-long strategy to exploit rare earth resources for geo-political gain. Paul joins forces with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, cutting-edge technologists, and elected officials to plan a rescue unlike any other against a backdrop of the looming embargo. His team forces him to face past ghosts, current enemies, and future desires, in a courageous hero's journey from Washington D.C. to China, and home to Silicon Valley.