When your name is a lie, every truth can kill.
Three months after cutting a secret deal with the FBI's Deputy Director,
ex-Special Agent Ashley Prescott gets her first off-the-books assignment: go
back undercover as Niki and infiltrate Greenwar, a radical eco-cell executing
executives of America's biggest polluters. Her way in? A dangerous cover as
special assistant to the head of a powerhouse D.C. energy lobby. Access that
could expose buried studies and dirty money—and paint a target on her back.
The assignment is already a death trap. But her real nightmare? The FBI
surveillance team tracking her every move. Her former boss wants her silenced,
buried, gone—and he's sent agents to make it happen. Now Niki is racing against
two countdowns: Greenwar's next kill and the federal raid that will blow her cover
wide open. One mistake, one moment of exposure, and she loses everything—her
freedom, her mission, and the only life she wants.
The terrorists want justice. The agents who destroyed her career want her gone
for good. And Niki? She just wants to survive long enough to take them all
down.
The assignment is to find the killer of the CEOs targeted by the environmental extremist organization Greenwar, and to do so she must infiltrate the splinter group. While trying to balance her personal problems with her family and its corporation and working undercover, Niki also finds that her old boss, Gex, is gunning for her.
As usual, Jim’s knowledge of technology keeps readers fascinated! E. B. Davis
When, after months of not hearing from Ambrose about an assignment, she meets him at a Nationals’ game where he creates a breach of security from the onset. Niki tells him about his breach and coaches him on undercover protocols. Why does Niki have to do so? Isn’t he well versed in FBI undercover procedures?
Thanks so much for another wonderful interview, E.B.
Ambrose is the #2 person at the FBI and is not versed in day-to-day operational details regarding undercover operations. Because Niki’s assignments are sub rosa, he can’t use Bureau resources who understand the complexity of successful undercover work.
Did you interview FBI and U.S. Marshals Service personnel to research this book?
In addition to reading books, articles, and training manuals, one of my past neighbors was a retired FBI Special Agent who worked many undercover assignments (mostly financial crimes). Besides taking me to a range to teach me how to shoot a pistol, we talked about his work. Everything I know about the US Marshals Service came from books or my imagination.
After spending years undercover infiltrating militia groups, Niki tells Ambrose her cover can’t be blown or her previous work will be for naught when she accepts the assignment of protecting the CEO, Jim Ford—an old friend of Ambrose’s, of American Hydrocarbons Institute from being targeted for assassination by the environmental extremists of Greenwar. How really can Ambrose ensure that Niki’s cover won’t be blown?
Blown-cover risk is something undercover agents fear because it endangers their lives. No one can guarantee a cover won’t be unmasked, but through meticulous backstory preparation, agents minimize the risk. Despite whatever Ambrose may claim, he can guarantee nothing.
To infiltrate Greenwar, Niki must ask Jim Ford to give her proof of environmental violations so she has the fodder Greenwar is looking to expose. This puts Jim Ford in the awkward position of trying to protect his life but by doing so compromising the integrity of the very organization he heads. Is it any wonder Ford only helps but so much?
How much is pride worth to you? Is it worth dying for? Not to me, but the rich, like Ford, have a different calculus and think they can escape paying a price for their misdeeds.
The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau (ATF) has an undercover agent already in place at Greenwar. If they are after the same thing, why duplicate efforts?
As Ambrose explains it, they aren’t after the same thing. The ATF tasked Mike, their undercover agent, to discover who in Greenwar is using explosives and where they are getting them from. Ambrose and the FBI are trying to find whoever is killing the executives and stop that person before they strike again.
If Niki is now with the U.S. Marshals Service, doesn’t she have a boss she needs to report to?
She would, except the Marshals Service is unaware she’s a badge-carrying member of their organization. They don’t find that out until Hijacked Legacy (Seamus McCree #8). [Although published earlier, that novel occurs chronologically two years later.]
In the beginning, guilt played a role: Ashley blames herself for Jacob’s father’s death, which brought on the financial hardship. It starts as an athlete-to-athlete connection, but grows deeper. Jacob needs a protector and a mentor, and Ashley steps into those roles—only later realizing the relationship has given her an impetus for personal growth.
Ashley and Seamus McCree have become lovers and partners especially when dealing with her family’s corporation, but he also helps with the logistics of her undercover assignments. Why wouldn’t Ashley read Seamus’s emails?
The emails relate to the Pendergast family business, of which Ashley wishes she had no part—but that’s not her fate. Given the choice of doing Pendergast business or almost anything else, she avoids the business. It’s not one of her strong points. Seamus’s emails are about business, so when she’s the least bit busy, she ignores them until they become critical—which, given we’re talking about a thriller, they do.
What are beta blockers that Ashley takes when she gets stress headaches? Is that like Prozac? Why does it help headaches?
Beta blockers are drugs that slow heart rate by blocking the effects of stress hormones, like adrenaline. Doctors sometimes prescribe them to reduce the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as a racing heart, shaking hands, and excessive sweating. Performers with anxiety often use beta blockers, as do people, like Niki, who have a fear of flying. In Ashley’s case, the beta blockers allow her shoulder and neck muscles to remain loose, and she doesn’t get tension headaches.
Does a water belt have a long straw so she can sip water when she runs?
Niki’s water belt carries two water bottles.
When Niki realizes that her old boss Gex is out to get her, she contacts Patrick McCree, Seamus’s son and technology expert, to make sure she has a way for Seamus, Rick, and her to communicate securely. Patrick recommends an online secure site where they can text only since there is technology that can conjure voices from vibrations on windows and ripples in water glasses. Is that a real thing? What’s it called?
It's a real thing that spy agencies have been using for years. They use laser microphones to detect the vibrations and sophisticated software to convert the vibrations into sound.
What was the Silk Road takedown? What is Tor?
Tor (The Onion Router) is software that provides online anonymity through encryption and hiding where the data is coming from. Ross Ulbricht founded Silk Road in 2011 as a darknet market that used Tor and bitcoin to hide transactions (the vast majority illegal—narcotics and other illegal products and services). The FBI cracked the network in 2013. Two years later, Ulbrick was convicted on multiple charges and given two life sentences without the possibility of parole. President Trump pardoned Ulbricht in January 2025.
Along with FBI Deputy Director Ambrose, Niki’s other boss is the Assistant Director of National Intelligence Park. Is that part of the NSA? Does he have access to FBI intel?
The Director of National Intelligence oversees many U.S. intelligence programs, including the National Security Agency (NSA). That includes FBI intelligence. Park, as an assistant director, would also have that access.
Is OnX some sort of GPS program?
OnX is a GPS-mapping app that combines GPS location and tracking with accurate land ownership maps. It’s used by hunters, hikers, off-road enthusiasts, and me.
What’s the difference between Cell Site Location Information (CSLI) and GPS?
GPS uses satellites to pinpoint a location. Every time a cell phone connects to a cell tower, it generates data (CSLI), which includes which cell tower, and the time and duration of the connection. CSLI is not as precise as GPS, but is still very useful in law-enforcement suspect analysis.
What is water poisoning that occurs during rehydration?
When a dehydrated person drinks too much water without added electrolytes, it screws up the mineral balance of their blood, particularly regarding sodium. In severe cases, it can cause confusion, seizures, coma, and death.
Ashley worries that her ideals are greater than her loyalty to the people who sacrifice for her, like McCree. Why does she think that about herself?
Ashley is an extremely competent woman who has focused almost exclusively on doing her job as best she can. Like many people focused on work, she has compromised other aspects of her life. In her undercover assignments, she’s dealt with many individuals who, while motivated to correct what they perceive as wrongs against society, have changed from principled do-gooders to become judge, jury, and executioner. She hasn’t gone that far, but she’s crossed some lines, and it makes her wonder if she’s abusing her relationships to bring “justice” to those who need it.
What’s next and when?
Niki Undercover and Niki Unleashed took place in 2000. Two books in the Seamus McCree series, Granite Oath and Hijacked Legacy, occur in 2002. The third book in the Niki Undercover Thriller series takes place in 2025-6. She’s still working undercover, but a lot has changed since Niki Unleashed: in her life, in Seamus’s life (as Seamus McCree series readers know), and—as readers will learn—to Ambrose and Park. But bad actors are still threatening the government, and Niki faces her largest challenge ever to save the country, or (as they say) die trying.
Great interview. Great character -- really enjoying this series (let me admit I received an ARC, but the opinion is truly my own)
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