5. COMPANIONS OF DEATH — SAHARA DESERT SERIES

In the searing heart of the Sahara, a peaceful merchant caravan is brutally annihilated. But this is no ordinary raid. An ominous secret lies buried in the blood-soaked sand, the discovery of a state-of-the-art machine gun.

When Legionnaires from Fort Ney stumble upon this grisly scene, the hardened Joos Janse, his South African comrades Org and Neels, and the Englishman Phil Marleigh, are drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Their garrison town, Dini Sadazi, suffocates beneath a simmering tension that erupts when one of their comrades is murdered in cold blood, and the shadow of the dreaded Bormoen leader, El Dowla, falls upon them. Then, Legionnaires begin to disappear one by one, abducted by the powerful and merciless El Dowla. Marleigh and two others are confronted with a terrible choice. Teach El Dowla’s Bormoen warriors how to use their newly acquired, feared Ratak rapid-fire rifles, or face a torturous death. El Dowla’s ambition is immense. To finally expel the Legion from his territory.

Joos and his friends refuse to abandon their comrade to his fate. Disguised as Arab pedlars, they undertake a desperate, perilous rescue mission deep into enemy territory. Their search leads them to Haratzo, El Dowla’s secret, heavily guarded stronghold, a place where treachery and peril lurk around every corner. In a nail-biting race against time and seemingly insurmountable odds, they must infiltrate El Dowla’s lair. What awaits these comrades of death? Will they be able to free Marleigh and the others in time, and can they destroy the deadly arsenal before it unleashes a bloodbath upon the Legion? The tension escalates to a deafening climax of gunpowder smoke and flames. This tale of daring, loyalty, and survival in the French Foreign Legion will keep readers riveted until the final, shocking page.

The Deserters