Having lost two of the things he treasures most, retired Marine Shake Davis is at a low ebb. His give-a-damn meter is pegged on empty until he's contacted by a millionaire videogame producer whose wife has been kidnapped by a cutthroat band of paramilitary rebels in the deep, dark jungles of Myanmar-or Burma to Shake's way of seeing the world. The connection between a man who has just lost his wife and another man who stands to do the same if Shake can't or won't help, is karma. And it sends Shake on a long, twisted, and dangerous trek into territory that is involved in the longest continuous civil war in world history. Exotic Burma-Rudyard Kipling's inspiration and World War II battleground of Merrill's Marauders-is the scene of a mission that nearly costs Gunner Shake Davis his life.