Seal Team Seven: Under Siege by Keith Douglass

when the leader of Seal Team Seven, Commander Blake Murdock, is kicked up the chain of command to a new posting at the Pentagon, he's rather upset with the whole situation. But he's nothing else if not a SEAL and orders are orders, so he sets it up so that the Seal Team has a commander from the Ranks, and sets about getting used to his new position, setting up quick-strike teams with both Navy and Marine personnel.

However, the abduction of the First Lady from her diplomatic visit to a small African Country brings him back to the helm of his team for one last mission. The man who has kidnapped her is smart, and keeps moving from place to place to keep the team off his tail. He uses several schemes to decoy them, or make them follow the wrong lead.

With the First Lady, he has also snatched a secure phone, one that cannot be traced, and he uses it to taunt the President and deliver his ransom demands. The First Lady spends a good amount of time insulting him back, but realizes it may have been better to be silent when he cuts off her little finger as proof he is ready to kill her if the President, and the United States do not submit to his demands.

Once he actually has the ransom, however, his plans begin falling apart. He kills his fellow co-conspirators to keep the millions for himself, but the SEAL Team has realized that his mission is a blind to keep the US out of a War between Iraq and Iran, and that the agressor is using biological materials, especially Anthrax.

Can SEAL Team Seven retrieve the First Lady and kill or capture the man who took her? And more importantly, can they end the threat of the biological terror weapons by destroying the factories that made them? But when one of the men is severely injured during the mission, they must rely on foreign doctors to treat him before he can die, and then to get him out of the country when he is finally well enough to be moved.

The best thing about this series is the sense of urgency Keith Douglass brings to his books. Reading them, you get the sense of how much could be lost if the team fails to do its mission or bring down its target. In this case, the primary mission is the most sensitive (rescuing the First Lady from a terrorist kidnapper, but it is a mere cover-up to the true forces behind the kidnapping, Iran, who seeks to go to War with Iraq, using biological terror weapons.

Also, you get a sense of the camaraderie that the SEALS have with each other. Though they may tease or even pick on each other when they are not in combat or in training, once the chips are down and the lead is flying, there is nowhere else you'd want another SEAL but at your back, unless it's at your side. And that's the best part of reading books like this, feeling like you're one of them, fighting at their side, sharing in their jokes and ribbing. I highly recommend this series. And I am Lady Rhian, and I approve this message. ::Wink.::