A Country In Flames... ...And Jeff Stone's Praetorian contractors are right in the middle of it. Mullah Abdullah Al Hakim has established himself, with Praetorian assistance, as the leader of the autonomous province of Basra in the wake of the bombing that killed the Iraqi Parliament. But an Iranian-aligned Iraqi General-turned-Warlord is descending on Basra with more force than either Al Hakim or Jeff's two reduced teams of Praetorians can resist. They have to escape from both the oncoming troops and treachery from within their erstwhile allies. Once out, however, they receive a new mission. During the fight for Basra, Jeff's team stumbled on a rogue American operation, supporting the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham, the most notoriously savage jihadist organization in the region, as a proxy weapon against Iran. Now they've been hired to shut down the operation, known simply as "The Project," by any means necessary. With their new employers' identity just as shadowy as The Project's backers, Jeff and his brother contractors have to navigate political pitfalls as well as a raging civil war as they drive into Baghdad, and the heart of an Iraq coming apart at the seams...