While the bloody battle for control of the Solomons rages on, two Marines are trapped at a Coastwatcher station on tiny Buka Island. They are there to report on Japanese air activity, and their position is becoming increasingly perilous, even while their supplies are diminishing rapidly; if they are not rescued soon, they may never make it off the island. On the orders of newly-commissioned Marine Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, a team is assembled: Captain Charles Galloway, still recuperating from his crash into the sea; Second Lieutenant Malcolm Pickering, Fleming’s son and the owner of a dangerous daredevil streak; Lieutenant Ken “Killer” McCoy, China Marine and hardened veteran; Sergeant Thomas McCoy, his brother, a man of such temper and talent that he keeps getting busted back to PFC and then promoted back again; and Sergeant George Hart, the youngest detective ever on the St.
