CCC Kontum, a US Special Forces unit, runs top-secret cross border reconnaissance missions. The President denies their involvement, and the public are unaware of their existence. Any method is permissable, in a secret war of relentless ferocity, where achieving your mission and surviving are not the same thing. Bobby Lake dropped out of Harvard to fight in Vietnam, because he wanted to be a hero. But how do you become a hero amongst men who only notice the cowards, where just the price of respect is high, and the cost of being a hero is hard to pay?.