Excerpt from Beaufort by Ron Leshem, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

“Cheetah to Deputy One. Testing transmission.”

“Roger, affirmative,” I respond into the two-way radio. “Functioning.” I return to my long silence.

Bleary eyes, mountain air, a brown and green desert, orchards and gardens, small stone buildings in turquoise and orange, olive groves. Everything is spread out before us. Are you dozing off? Dozing off? No way! Hey, you see that? You catch that? Is it what I think it is? Yeah, yeah. Are they armed? Yes, absolutely. Armed.

“Cheetah, this is Deputy One,” I report. “We’ve got three scumbags north of the Virlist road.” Oshri’s got one in his sights, Chaki another, and Bendori the third. They’ve entered killing range, they’ve got packs on their backs, it can’t be anything else. “Deputy One to Cheetah, marksmen on targets. Do I have confirmation?” I wait.

“Deputy One this is Cheetah. Negative, repeat: negative. No confirmation, Deputy One.”

“Cheetah, this is Deputy One, we’ve got them covered. Scumbags. Awaiting confirmation.”

“No confirmation, Deputy One. Negative, repeat: no confirmation for action.”

“But they’re moving forward. Fast. We shouldn’t lose them. We’ve got them in our sights.”

“Negative, Deputy One.”

Negative? Why negative, you fucking assholes! Does it make sense to you that I should lie here like some goddamn faggot missing an opportunity like this? Does it really? No way. “Squad, on my count. Four, three, two, one, fire. Twenty-one, twenty-two, fire. Prepare to attack.”

“Commander Cheetah to Deputy One, do not fire your weapons! No confirmation, stay in position.”

“Squad, prepare to attack.”

“Erez, you psycho! Stay where you are. That’s an order! Erez, you’re in violation of an order!”

“Squad, attack!”

Excerpted from Beaufort by Ron Leshem, translated by Evan Fallenberg. Copyright © 2007 by Ron Leshem. Excerpted by permission of Delacorte Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.