The Vipers of Islam

"Someone was yelling outside and I heard the gate to our compound crash open. Through the dust, I saw three men enter our apartment firing wildly... I fired, hitting one attacker in the head and the other in the chest... Bullets plowed through and struck the wall behind me."

Time is running out in Douglas Vigil's heart-pounding debut novel, "The Vipers of Islam."

In a pre-9/11 world, American CIA officers Hamid and Jack Thompson (code name Ahmed Khan) have been deep undercover in Peshawar. There, they attempt to collect as much information as they can on the radical Islamist groups that have recently been flooding the area, as well as trace the historic smuggler routes used to connect Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Tora Bora Mountains.

Familiar with al Qaeda and highly suspicious that they are planning a major attack, Hamid and Khan are reluctantly forced to retreat when their cover is blown.

Before they can escape, however, their compound is attacked by Ali Selamat Bashari, an Islamic jihadist associated with the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Seriously wounded yet bent on revenge, Hamid and Khan will stop at nothing to track down Bashari...no matter the cost.