Prisoners of the Game

From Tim Allen, author of the 2016 bestseller, Apocalypse Orphan, this exciting story has all the elements of an epic thriller that will have readers biting their nails as six video gamers, trapped in a matrix of virtual worlds, fight for their lives against a seemingly unbeatable cyber-entity determined to enslave the human race.
During the Cold War, Russia developed over 100 nuclear suitcase bombs, some capable of destroying a small city. In 2019, a Qatari terrorist acquired them on the black market. One summer day, he unleashed the fury of hell, raining destruction on the West. World War III engulfs the planet, and the superpowers develop super-intelligent androids to gain the upper hand. But the machines turn on their masters, slaughtering humans by the millions. The Robotic Wars rage on for years, but finally, the swarming androids are defeated.
Determined that the world must never again fight a physical war and suffer mass destruction, a new alternative to shock and awe from the sky and boots on the ground is developed. Spy agencies begin recruiting and training an elite army of video warriors to battle in hostile worlds that exist only in virtual reality. Every nation develops its own cadre of well-trained video gamers, called "Irus," who defend their homelands against conquest. Wars are fought in virtual worlds for control of territories, natural resources, and wealth.
But after decades of world peace and prosperity, something is going wrong with the global network of computer servers. Irus are suffering grisly deaths in real life, and ghostly apparitions are defying the laws of science, escaping from the virtual realm and manifesting in the physical world.
Six young Irus are dispatched into the holo-cloud to investigate the glitch that is causing havoc with the war servers, and all hell breaks loose. Trapped in dangerous, computer-generated alien worlds, these video warriors must time-travel through treacherous scenarios and fight off aliens, zombies, enemy soldiers, and the vast legions of Rome to escape torture and death as prisoners of the game.