Gail Miller is transferring to the Landing Helicopter Assault Ship, the USS Peleliu, to begin her assignment as Chief Steward of the galley there. Sly Stowell is already aboard the Peleliu and serves as Chief Petty Officer and hovercraft pilot. Gail hasn't been on the ship for 10 minutes and she is already going out on a Landing Craft, Air Cushion Hovercraft for a mission under the command of Sly. Once they rescue the many civilians from the US Embassy in Abidjan which is under attack, Gail sees that her time on the Peleliu is going to be about much more than cooking.
Even though some of the Night Stalkers from previous books are featured here, this story lacked depth and emotion, possibly due to its short length. The characters are poorly developed as is the plot. The reasoning behind the choices the characters make is not clearly explored. There is a great deal of technical jargon that isn't necessary to tell a story of this length, and to top it all off, there are several glaring grammatical errors that take attention away from the story. This is a real letdown by M.L. Buchman, whose stories, especially The Night Stalkers, are usually so good. ( )