Terrorist ben-Zhair is about to realise his vision to destroy the West. Backed by a Middle Eastern Sheikh, he always delivered on his grandiose promises and this one doesn’t come any bigger. Only two people have a bead on him – an ex-Royal Marine and a psychopathic femme fatale. They are sworn enemies in this topical fast-paced action thriller.
The terrorist Abu ben-Zhair is on the cusp of realising his vision to destroy the West and cow the East, thereby succeeding in his avowed ‘Cause of All Causes’ to establish a Caliphate which rules half the world. His earlier, unprecedented threats were ignored by the global community but he succeeded in his design. He has always delivered on his grandiose promises – and this one doesn’t come any bigger. He has identified one critical point on the earth’s surface where one determined terrorist with resources and imagination can trigger disaster on a global scale – and he has acquired the weapon for this purpose.
In the murky world of counter-intelligence, trust is a tradeable commodity and the geo-political turf wars continue while ben-Zhair moves towards his climactic attack.
The story moves to a terrifying close with a catastrophic threat to the United States and Europe, and even then the international political manoeuvring continues – up to the very last seconds. Ex-Marine Steve Baldwin and his MI6 sidekick Ellie Williams fight desperately to save the day as the gritty covert action moves from Gibraltar to Algeria – and onward across the Atlantic Ocean.
Excerpt
The First Day of Ramadan, an Atlantic Island:
“I think it’s going to hit.” The awe in Tricia’s voice was clear as she spoke the words slowly and distinctly. She was looking at the ship, whilst Peter’s eyes were drawn to the missiles in flight – each heading in opposite directions and about to pass each other.
She watched in awe as the ship quickly slowed, skewing, as more than fifty thousand tons of steel met the rock and sand less than forty feet below. It drove onwards, its outer bottom hull ripping and filling with water, then the inner skin was tearing as the ship slowed. Inside, the rigidly built containment structure remained intact, the generators continued to run and the vacuum tubes remained solid. The decks and cargo stacks held firm – insurers mandated that such ships were designed to cope with such accidents.
Fifty meters outside Spanish airspace the first two cruise missiles self-destructed as the one remaining F15 screamed overhead in a desperate attempt to evade the Novyy Rassvet SAM missile.
“What was that?” Peter peered through the binoculars at two small clouds to the east. “It sounded like explosions. Far away, though.”
They didn’t see the others.
Above them, the F15 launched its own missile – an AGM-88J AARGM – which locked on to the ship’s anti-aircraft radar.
Peter held the binoculars. “The ship has stopped! It’s only about fifty yards offshore. Maybe it’s hit a rock or run into the shallows?”
From the Gillespies’ vantage point the bow of the ship was clearly visible over the cliff edge and its thick cover of a banana plantation. They didn’t know that the ship was hung up on an outcrop of harder igneous rock. This outcrop had been selected more than two years previously by Nassim Kateb to act as the initial conduit of the explosive shock wave. He planned that it would conduct the power of the weapon through a hard stratum into the softer rock.
In Sidi bel Abbès, the voice of Jafa Sharifi was heard on the virtual bridge of the ship.
“All parameters are within limits – laser temperature, power bank levels, mirror alignment. Fuel pellet parameters are perfect!
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