The Unsanctioned Guardians Series

Prequel to the Elioud Legacy series Six months ago, Olivia Markham testified in the grueling murder trial of her cousin Emily’s killer. When her boyfriend Jamie surprises Olivia with a trip to Ibiza, party island of the world, her family and friends urge her to go. After all, Emily had been her best friend, the one she’d planned to room with at Brown University her freshman year. Olivia gets her chance to let loose—only not in the way anyone could foresee. What was supposed to be a vacation dancing and drinking on the beach trying to move on from her cousin’s death turns into a nightmare terrorist attack instead. As men with automatic weapons and knives move through screaming, swimsuit-clad, and drunken tourists, Olivia can’t flee. She has to do something. Even if it kills her. So she stops and confronts a knife-wielding man who’d just slaughtered a young couple. It was a foolhardy act. But Olivia’s presence of mind and surprising fighting skills don’t go unnoticed—or in vain. A team from the Special Activities Division, the CIA’s ultra-clandestine paramilitary unit, miraculously intervenes. What happens next changes the course of Olivia’s life forever. Set six years before the ELIOUD LEGACY series, THE COVERT GUARDIAN narrates Olivia Markham’s genesis from idealistic college student to trained intelligence operative.

Prequel to the Elioud Legacy series She was trained to follow orders. She chose her conscience instead. Berlin, 2011—The War on Terror is ten years’ old and shows no signs of abating. While on a high-stakes operation to unearth a terrorist cell on the verge of a devastating attack, newly minted CIA officer Olivia Markham spots a young woman being harassed by a group of immigrants. Unable to stop herself, she intervenes. For better or worse, her actions affect the mission objective. The instincts that made Olivia a stellar CIA recruit threaten her ability to work in the field. But Olivia’s instincts won’t be denied. Even as she faces opposition within the CIA, Olivia meets two other operatives from other agencies whose instincts match her own: Captain Alžběta Czerná of Czech military intelligence and Anastasia Fiore of Italian foreign intelligence. Yet each action outside the wire risks her future at the CIA. As what’s right becomes lost in the fog, Olivia must balance her official and unsanctioned covert activities. Until the dangerous mission that forces her to write her own operational protocol. Set two and half years before THE ELIOUD LEGACY series, THE HARLEQUIN PROTOCOL tells the story of Olivia Markham’s transition from trained field operative to unsanctioned guardian. "If I loved Olivia before, I am insanely mad about her after this. She is a superb character." -- Ted Fichtl, Col. USA (retired)