Striker Malone is determined to make a living and earn self-respect in a town that once thrived on iron ore. His sancturary is the Black Rock Tavern where he befriends Loretta and Savanna and the unpredictable Joey Rook. Together they tangle with a lawless clan called the Long Coats. Beneath the surface a contagious disease is wiping out the bats, and like the dying bats, Striker may become an endangered species. -- back cover.