The Khmer Kill

Dox is a former Marine sniper turned mercenary, with a habit of wisecracking his way through bad situations. His latest job in Cambodia looks routine: a long-range hit, a clear target, a clean exit. He has done work like this before, and he expects to be gone before anyone asks questions.

The job does not stay clean. Dox is drawn into the orbit of rogue intelligence operations, and in the process he uncovers a brutal human-trafficking network operating in the country. The people behind the hit are not the only ones with something to hide.

What began as work becomes personal. Dox has to decide how far he will go to put things right, and where professional detachment gives way to a private reckoning. The same line runs through Barry Eisler's assassin fiction, where Dox first appeared as a supporting character in the John Rain novels.

At roughly 65 pages, this entry in the Dox side stories moves fast and keeps the action morally grey. It is short enough to finish in a single sitting, and the open question is whether Dox can walk away from what he has found in Cambodia.