Steve Reed

After his brush with death, Jack Steele emerges a man, in some measure less than he was, but more than he should be. But what has he become, exactly? Alone and on his own in Dark Territory, Steele finds trust is a dangerous and precarious proposition. Forced to change and adapt to survive without support, he is willing to do nearly anything to get home to his wife and son. Flung wide across unpredictable, untamed, and unforgiving space, Jack Steele and his extended family struggle for survival, left to their own devices.

Jack Steele's Freedom is no longer the wounded duck she once was. They leave UFW Blackmount Station repaired and retooled, with a complete crew, fully armed and resupplied, ready to hunt. But life in a busy and turbulent universe is rarely as simple as one would hope it to be.

Secret alien operatives have spent decades infiltrating humanity; government, military, and key positions in the populace to prepare the world's population for control and mass slavery. The planet's mineral resources notwithstanding, the most viable commodity on the planet is its people and the best way to control them is a one-world government. But with the arrival of Jack Steele's Task Force Lancer, the alien operatives are desperate for a way out and will stop at nothing to prevent their capture.

Jack Steele is an ex-big-city cop that left the department after losing a friend in the line of duty. Recovering from a tough divorce, he reinvents himself with a love of flying and restructures his life as a pilot for hire. Accompanied by his ever-present German Shepherd, Fritz, Jack will fly almost anything anywhere, shuttling new and used planes for clients all over the world. He had never been a Boy Scout, but he is a man who likes to stay prepared and in control of whatever life throws at him. But nothing could have prepared Jack and his copilot for how life suddenly goes drastically and violently sideways...