Orlando Stephenson

Click Fraud @ Sonic Ping Orlando Stephenson

This is the first book in the Daryl Morgan and Rodger Truscott series. It is a fast-paced thriller with tech overtones. Daryl is a nice guy who likes helping people. His partner Rodger, a former Seal, is a computer whiz who also happens to be deadly with his hands and any kind of weapon. In this opening book they find that a click fraud scheme at Sonic Ping (a Google competitor) leads them to a string of women who have been sold into slavery, multiple murders and internet fraud. When their friend Maddy is sold they follow the trail to Casablanca and Marrakesh where they find her on the block in a slave market. Their hope is to buy her back, but they are outbid. They only succeed in rescuing her with the help of the Wazir of Marrakesh. In putting an end to that market, they discover that the key to unraveling the click fraud scheme is Judy Green, an undercover FBI agent, who is presumed dead but who has also been kidnapped and sold to a sheik in Tripoli. Rescuing her involves help from Prince Hakeem, the Wazir's son, and a beautiful Arabic mercenary who goes by the code name "Poison". The rescue goes badly, and they are forced to fight their way out of the sheik's palace and back to the airport. They use the Wazir's jet to escape, narrowly evading being shot down by a Libyan fighter jet. Along the way Daryl and Rodger are helped by a host of unusual characters. The sultry Selma, part owner of the local gentleman's club, Achmed Bakam al Saadin, the Wazir of Marrakesh, his son Prince Hakeem, the stunning and dangerous Arabian female mercenary "Poison" and the gargantuan bodyguard Tiny. Villains are everywhere: the whiz kid founder of the search engine company, corrupt cops, Russian mobsters and Middle Eastern oil tzars.