The Gauntlet: The Novelization

Burned-out Phoenix cop Ben Shockley gets what looks like a throwaway assignment: pick up a witness in Las Vegas and bring her back for a mob trial. The witness turns out to be Augustina "Gus" Mally, a sharp-tongued call girl who insists she knows too much to arrive alive.

At first Ben thinks it's just paranoia. Then the bullets start flying.

As they cross the desert toward Phoenix, the trip becomes a rolling ambush, with bikers, hitmen, and even fellow cops trying to turn their escort into a funeral procession. Realizing they've been set up as disposable pawns, Ben and Gus barrel toward the city in a last-ditch run through a gauntlet of gunfire.