Year 2032. The third Iran-Iraq war has come to an end; the bombing on 11/11 in Long Beach, California, is a bad memory; Saudi Arabia has just recently suppressed a coup attempt; Russians and Turks are clashing in the Caspian basin; Iranian armored units, with the support of their Chinese allies' satellite and unmanned forces, are leaving their enclaves and moving south trying to reclaim the resource-rich area they believe was stolen from them by Lukoil, BP, and ExxonMobil with their private armies. The Intervention Force holds the monopoly on mercenaries. Its leader is the disgraced former United States Marine General James Salter, who was removed by the President for threatening the Chinese with nuclear holocaust and lives in exile in the Middle East. Highly skilled in military and political planning, Salter manages to seize vast areas with oil and gas deposits, thus becoming the most powerful man on the planet. His ultimate goal is to take revenge on those responsible for his exile and return home... as a marshal. The only one who can stop him is Gilbert "Jed" Gentilhomme, Salter's most loyal mercenary and closest confidant, who is also the narrator of the story... With a key feature of extremely impressive research into military tactics and imbued with the timeless issues of honor and valor of warriors that characterize all of Pressfield's novels, "The Professional" is one of those rare novels that remain indelibly etched in the reader's memory... "The 'master storyteller' and author of the major bestsellers 'Gates of Fire', 'The Bloody Campaign', and 'Killing Rommel' returns with an astonishing, chillingly convincing thriller set in the near future..." ("Publishers Weekly")