Brute Force: Betrayals — Dean Wesley Smith

At the dawn of the 24th century, the Confederation of Allied Worlds maintains an uneasy peace among the many races and worlds of its fifty star systems. When trouble erupts, the Confed's most effective weapon--swift, savage, and totally secret--are small teams of elite combat operatives who employ brute force to eliminate potential threats. Teams of deadly fighters like Tex, Flint, and Hawk.

They are the rare Operatives who have survived countless covert operations in lethal hellholes across Confed space. They know from experience that life is cheap in the world of black ops, and to trust little besides their weapons and each other. But when mysterious alien artifacts begin to turn up during routine missions, they realize that the enemy they fight may be more sinister, and closer to home, than they imagined.

Now this team of well-honed killing machines must use all of their specialized skills to survive, in a desperate struggle against the web of betrayals closing in on them... .