Merriam Press World War 2 Fiction. Miles Ashton was a graduate student in anthropology at Columbia University when he met Ella Desserret, a Lakota (Sioux) woman who taught him linguistics. Thanks to her, he mastered several diverse languages. Later, while doing field work in South Dakota, Black Wolf befriended him. The old healer not only taught Miles scouting and warrior skills but taught him Woksape Wokikta (to awaken to wisdom). After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, an Army intelligence officer recruited him and began teaching him the art of intelligence. His last mentor was a Tennessee-born businessman in the Philippines who taught him the art of the calculated risk. When Miles was commissioned, he was assigned to General MacArthur's staff in Australia. There he joined the secret SPYRON program and began delivering weapons and supplies to Filipino guerrillas by submarine. By then he was well trained, but would it be enough to outsmart the Japanese who were bent on catching him?