Wreath of fire Book Summary

Kane and the others are in the outlands of Uinta Mountains in Utah.  They are stopped by a group of armed highwaymen.  The leader of this band is named Nell. They talk quite a bit while Nell gets her people into position.  Kane claims he and Domi are trader and need fuel for their bike.

Kane sees that Nell is giving him no choice but to fight and he starts the bike and races towards Nell and one of the men with her.   The men manning the machine gun open up but Grant is watching from afar and takes them out with the Barrett Sniper Rifle.

Kane chases after Nell and she leads him into some canyons.  Both people are firing at each other.  But the woman leads him into a trap where he is grabbed by a underground mutie.  The creature pulls him down into the earth.

Brigid and Grant see what happen but they are unable to help him.  Despite her anger to him for what happened a few weeks before she desperately wants to go and help him.  But Grant holds her back.

Back at Colbatville Kearny meets with the baron.  The baron makes it very clear that nothing is to interfere with the Caravans and that they must make it to the ville.  Kearny says that they will make it.

The creature that grabbed Kane is gravely wounded when Kane uses his shotgun on it.  He is able to claw his way to the surface and Nell attacks him.  Kane kills her by throwing his combat knife at her.  After that he meets with Domi and they go to meet the approaching caravan.

Domi approaches the caravan first and does the whole tough girl act. She is very vulgar and she finally lets the leader know that she isn’t traveling alone. Kane makes his appearance and continues with the tough man act as well. One of the caravans leaders shoots at them but Kane merely wounds him.  The leaders name is Chapman and he is still ready to talk.

Turns out that Chapman knew Nell.  He doesn’t hold a grudge for Kane killing her but takes time to bury her. Kane takes the woman’s weapons and equipment, including the machine gun. Chapman offers to let Kane and Domi to ride along with him to the roadhouse.

Kane and Domi check out Nell’s vehicle.  They find out that it’s almost dry.  Chapman offers to sell them the fuel they will need in exchange for the machine gun. Kane agrees but doesn’t give the ammo for it.

As they approach the roadhouse they see about six corpses hung up to ward off possible raiders.  Kane learns that the miners have a bounty on the raiders.

Dafore, Bry and Lakesh are all in the control room. They are discussing the re-openings of the mines, they are also discussing the army that has arose and are taking the ore from the mines and killing the trading caravans.  Lakesh knows that Chapman is transporting something for the Baron.  The last time he was up near the ruins of Silicon Valley near Seattle.  They pick up a Deathbird traveling to meet the convoy.

The convoy arrives at Peabodies roadhouse. Kane parks his bike in position for a quick escape if need be. He goes into the bar and orders a drink. The bar tender asks him what he has for trade.  He tells the tender that he has picks and equipment. One of the patrons calls him a raider and Kane cold cocks him with his rifle.

Chapman knows he’s going to lose his man that Domi shot earlier and sure enough the man tries to kill her.  She toys with him before finally killing him.  Chapman wants both her and Kane to join on more than ever now.

Kearny is inside a makeshift HQ in a small cave near where they will be meeting up with Chapman’s convoy. They are also there to hunt down raiders and make sure that the convoy makes it back intact.

Lakesh finds out about the large magistrate force that is waiting for Chapman’s convoy.  He and Bry discuss the raiders and they come to the realization that the raiders must be using an unknown gateway somewhere inside Utah.

After leaving the main room Domi is taking a bath.  She tries to seduce Kane into having sex with her but he turns her down flat. Despite liking the woman.  She is so insistent that he brings up Grant.  This upsets her and they discuss him.  Finally nothing happens and they both get some sleep.

About three hours after dawn the group leave the roadhouse. Chapman joins an ore caravan run by a man named Macon.  The man is using a prop driven plane and he is in the air running as a scout.  They see the body of the man that Domi killed posted and has a raider sign hanging from his body.  It was done to keep the people peaceful. 

As they approach the same area where the magistrates are stationed the raiders appear.  They hit the convoy with about twenty vehicles. The magistrates send in six Deathbirds and quickly discover that the raiders have anti aircraft weapons at their disposal. They end up losing all six Deathbirds.

Both Domi and Kane break away from the convoy and make a run for it. The raiders are wiping everyone out with extreme prejudice.  The car that Domi is driving is taken out and she joins Kane.  They have no choice but to head to the river to make their escape.  They lose the bike but stay under water and are able to swim to safety.

During the battle Kearny is taken captive and he meets the woman who is the leader of the raiders. Her name is Ambika. She gives him a verbal message to deliver to Cobalt. The message is that the mines are hers and that she is declaring war against him and his magistrates.

Quite a way from the canyon and the slaughter Kane and Domi crawl out of the water. They managed to salvage several weapons from the corpses in the water.  They also spot a single wag and Kane jumps on it and forces it to stop. It’s Kearny and he is wounded.  At the same time Brigid and Grant arrive and they interrogate him and discover what happened.

It appears that Chapman has been bringing back computer hardware and software for Cobalt. Kearny tells them if he knew where to sign up with Ambika, he would.  Kane gives him some supplies and some medication to help with the pain and they send him on his way so he can deliver the message.

Back at Cerberus, Dafore is trying to get Lakesh to get some rest.  She reminds him of the dire consequences if he doesn’t.  They see the raiders disappear into the Dinosaur National Monument, as well as see a flight of Deathbirds heading to the Battle site. Lakesh has Bry check cobaltville for word on the monument.

Once three hours has passed Kane and Domi return to the site of the massacre. The raiders took all the weapons and goods that they could find.  They are able to find enough fuel for the sandcat.  Lakesh contacts them and he wants them to check out the Dinosaur National Monument. He believes that there is a gateway hidden there somewhere and that they want to try and contact the warrior woman Ambika.

By nightfall they are in the forest of the monument. Grant brings up the question why no one lives there, as there is amble game.  They find a canyon and travel along it.  Kane spots some oil and they knew that they were on the right track.

They follow the trail and find a holographic wall hiding the entrance to the redoubt. Kane and Grant suit up in their Magistrate armor and enter the redoubt. 

Kearny is taken to see Cobalt. The man is in Shackles and despite the agony it causes him, he walks on his own.  It isn’t the like the magistrates would help him. The barons learn of Ambika.  He orders the Magistrate Sandstrom to send assassins after her.

Kearny wants to go, and he begs the baron to send him, but instead the Baron has Sandstrom kill him. As he dies, Kearny silently hopes that Kane and Ambika join forces and take the Baron out.

Brigid gets a report back from Cerberus about Ambika.  She is the result of the totalitarian concept, part of the Excalibur Project.

After determining that there are no guards left behind Kane and the others drive the sandcat into the cavern and the redoubt. Kane takes the lead and finds a map of the redoubt.  The layout is very simple. They see that the redoubt was originally redoubt Oscar but someone crossed out the name and changed it to Minerva. 

They discuss going back to Cerberus after Brigid is able to find the destination code for the redoubt that the raiders came from.  But in the end they drive the sandcat into the gateway and make the jump.

Bry wakes up Lakesh to report that they jumped from the Gateway.  He isn’t able to find their arrival gateway and Lakesh tells him to search the western Isles.

Kane and the others wake up after the jump.  They take a quick seventeen-minute recce of the base and discover that it is built identically to the redoubt in the National Monument. They figure out that they are about twenty miles north of the ruins of Los Angeles. They decide to get cleaned up and have a meal and rest before heading out to see if they can find Ambika.

The next morning they head out in the Sandcat.  Almost instantly they are attacked by a group of Asians.  They fight and kill the attackers.  The group head towards the beach.  They see two ships and one of the ships opens up with its onboard cannons. Domi opens up on it with the Sandcat machine guns.  The attack forces the ship out deeper into the ocean.

Kane and Grant take a powerboat and they head out to the other ship that is still near the shore. When the crew see them approaching they fight against the Orientals but are about to be slaughtered when Kane and Grant board. With their arrival they are able to turn the battle and help the crew take back the ship.

It was captured by the orientals and they meet with the captain of the ship. His name is Jeremiah Christiansen and the ship is called the Sloop John B. They learn that the orientals are all members of the Tongs.  The leader is named Wei Qiang. Kane forces him to give them passage to the ville on the southern end of Columbine Isle, in return for saving them.

Brigid and Domi pace the ship in the sandcat from the shoreline. They learn that Wei Qiang and his family have quite the reputation.  If it weren’t for Ambika he would control all of the western islands. Christensen admits to trading with Ambika. She set up on the island of Columbine ten years ago and he figures that she came from the Redoubt that is located on the island. 

They dock and head into the ville, hoping to meet with both Ambika and Qiang.  They pass a gaudy where a young girl tries to push herself off on Kane. He forces her off and the locals attack.  They quickly and easily dispose of the attackers and head with Christensen to Dai Jia Lou’s to meet with Qiang.

Inside the building they approach the man. He has seventeen bodyguards with him. Christensen approaches and accuses him of attacking and trying to take his ship the day before. The sec men draw on him and are ready to kill him. Qiang calms it down and they talk. He wants to know a bit about Kane and warns that if anything happens to him and he’s killed there are assassins who will hunt him down to the ends to the earth.  They do learn that Ambika is in the building after all. They decide to go and meet her.

They spot the guards and when they announce that they are from the Utah territories they are taken in to see her right away. Ambika meets them and wants to know who they are and why they are there. She sends away her sec men as she already knows who they really are.  She has her spies in Cobaltville.  She tells them to meet her at the Docs at sunset and that they will be heading to her island.

Brigid wants to head back to Cerberus. Kane refuses because they don’t know enough yet.  Ambika has them join her on her flagship.  She forces Christensen to come with them as well.

After they leave Ambika meets with Kane on the deck and reveals her history to him.  She asks about Brigid and Kane refuses to tell her that they are a couple. Which of course they aren’t.  They part ways and get some rest.

Kane wakes up next morning and meets with Brigid on the deck as they eat their breakfast. As it typically is, their discussion is rather heated but before it gets worse, on of Qiangs small planes arrive on the scene and deliver a message that one of Ambika’s oil ships is under attack. Kane and Grant agree to help in the fight.

They catch up to the besieged ships and attack the raiders. They board the ship and kill everyone that they encounter.  Once the nearly one sided battle is complete Ambika orders every pirate that survived to be executed and they end up salvaging six of the seven ships. Kane doesn’t join in the executions, his fight finished.

Brigid joined the fight after all and she meets with Kane.  They talk and she is hurt after seeing him fight and then kiss the warrior woman.  Kane decides to leave and check in on Ambika since she had been wounded.  He goes to her cabin and she is taking a bath. She invites him in.  She tries to seduce him but he turns her down.  She dismisses him.

At sunset they arrive at her island fortress. She leads the group into her personal administration building and are shown their guest rooms. Brigid is still very angry with Kane, but Grant sets her straight when it comes to Kane and Ambika.

Kane is about to find out what her plans are.  They discuss it and Lakesh is brought up in all but name. She takes him to see a Chinese submarine that they had found and salvaged. It was loaded with chemical and biological agents.  She plans to use the weapons against the Tongs and Cobalt.

Kane knows the danger and decides he has to stop her no matter what.  So he agrees to have sex with her. When he kisses her one of her sec men attacks him. She is enraged and promptly cuts the offenders head off.  She gives Kane an hour to prepare.

Grant contacts him and gets Domi. They are going to have to run for it but when they check on Brigid, they see she isn’t there.

Kane goes to Ambika and gives her pleasure before she takes him into her bedroom. He sees Brigid in a cage.  Despite that he knows he has to take her in order to make his plan come together.  So he rides her good and hard. When she climaxes, he attacks. 

            The fight is brutal but he eventually manages to subdue her and releases Brigid.  Grant and Domi join and they have to head down and scuttle the submarine.  There they kill all but one of the guards and find out from him where the weapons are being stored.  They sink the sub and set charges everywhere.

They still have Ambika with them and they board the Sloop John B and get Christensen to cast off and make a run for it.  He is hoping that with Ambika with them that will hold her people at bay.

Brigid is talking to her.  Ambika tells her that she knows she is jealous of her and what she and Kane did together. After the taunting she orders her forces to attack and kill everyone on board using implanted communication gear.

Ambikas ship closes and they fight. Her people board but Kane and Grant drop explosives down the hold in order to scuttle it.  Domi and Brigid help by providing cover fire. When they get back Ambika escaped by chewing off her own thumb.  She tries to kill Brigid with her sword but Kane risks his armored arm and takes the blow. The warrior woman dives overboard to escape.

When dawn arrives Kane and Brigid watch it, not fighting for a change.

End of Wreath of Fire