Andy McNab - Aggressor

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Epub ISBN: 9781407039299

Version 1.0

www.randomhouse.co.uk

AGGRESSOR

A CORGI BOOK : 0552150207

9780552150200

Originally published in Great Britain by Bantam Press, a division of Transworld Publishers

PRINTING HISTORY

Bantam Press edition published 2005

Corgi edition published 2006

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Copyright Andy McNab 2005

The right of Andy McNab to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Condition of Sale

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Andy McNab joined the infantry as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment and was involved in both covert and overt special operations worldwide.

During the Gulf War he commanded Bravo Two Zero, a patrol that, in the words of his commanding officer, will remain in regimental history for ever. Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Armys most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993. He wrote about his experiences in two phenomenal bestsellers, Bravo Two Zero , which was filmed starring Sean Bean, and Immediate Action .

His novels include Remote Control , Liberation Day , Dark Winter and Deep Black . He is also the author of The Grey Man , a Quick Reads book for World Book Day, and, with Robert Rigby, Boy Soldier, Payback and for younger readers, Avenger . His new novel, Recoil , will be available from Bantam Press later in the year. Besides his writing work, he lectures to security and intelligence agencies in both the USA and the UK.

Acclaim for Andy McNab:

McNabs great asset is that the heart of his fiction is non-fiction: other thriller writers do their research, but he has actually been there Sunday Times

McNab is a terrific novelist. When it comes to thrills, hes Forsyth class Mail on Sunday

www. books at transworld .uk/andymcnab

Addictive... Packed with wild action and revealing tradecraft Daily Telegraph

Firmly established as one of the UKs top thriller writers, McNab draws heavily from his experiences in the worlds most highly skilled special forces unit to make his fiction explosive, pacey and authentic Express Magazine

The word page-turner seems coined for McNabs work Crime Time

Also by Andy McNab

Non-fiction

BRAVO TWO ZERO

IMMEDIATE ACTION

Fiction

REMOTE CONTROL

CRISIS FOUR

FIREWALL

LAST LIGHT

LIBERATION DAY

DARK WINTER

DEEP BLACK

THE GREY MAN

and published by Corgi Books

PART ONE

Monday, 5 April 1993

The three of us clung to the top of the Bradley armoured fighting vehicle as it bucked and lurched over the churned-up ground. Exhaust fumes streamed from its rear grille and made us choke, but at least they were warm. The days out here might be hot, but the nights were freezing.

My right hand was clenched round an ice-cold grab handle near the turret. My left gripped the shoulder strap of my day sack. Wed flown three thousand miles to use this gear, and there was nothing to replace it if it got damaged. The whole job would have to be aborted and I would be severely in the shit.

Nightsun searchlights mounted on the four AFVs strafed the front of the target buildings. The other three were decoys; ours was the only one transporting a three-man SAS team. That was if we could all keep a grip on the thing.

As our driver took a sharp left towards the rear of the target, our Nightsun sliced a path across the night sky like a scene from the Blitz.

Charlie was team leader on this one, and wore a headset and boom mike to prove it. Connected to the comms box outside the AFV, it meant he could talk to the crew. His mouth was moving but I didnt have a clue what he was saying. The roar of the engine and the clatter of the tracks put paid to that. He finished, pulled off the headset, and lobbed it onto the grille. He gave Half Arse and me a slap and the shout to stand by.

Seconds later, the AFV slowed, then came to a halt: our cue to jump. We scrambled down the sides, taking care our day sacks didnt strike anything on the way.

The vehicle swivelled on its own axis, mud cascading from its tracks, then headed back the way wed come.

I joined Charlie and Half Arse behind a couple of cars. They were obvious cover, but wed only be here a few seconds, and if the Nightsuns had done their job, anybody watching from the building would have lost their night vision anyway.

We hugged the ground, looking, listening, tuning in.

Our AFV was now grinding along the other side of the building with its mates, Nightsuns working the front of the target. And now that they were a safe distance from our eardrums, the loudspeakers mounted on each vehicle began to broadcast a horrible, high-pitched noise like baby rabbits being slaughtered. Theyd been doing that for days. I didnt know how it was affecting the people inside the target, but it certainly made me crazy.

We were about fifty metres from the rear of the target. I checked Baby-G: about six hours till first light. I checked the gaffer tape holding my earpiece, and that the two throat-mike sensors were still in place.

Charlie was sorting out his own comms. When hed finished taping his earpiece, he thumbed the pressle hanging from a wire attached to the lapel of his black corduroy bomber jacket, and spoke low and slow. This is Team Alpha. We clear to move yet? Over. Brits found his thick Yorkshire accent hard enough to understand; fuck knows what the Americans at the other end would make of it.

He was talking to a P3 aircraft circling some twenty-five thousand feet above our heads. Bristling with thermal imaging equipment to warn us of any impending threat while we were on the job, it also carried an immensely powerful infrared torch. I checked that my one-inch square of luminous tape was still stuck on my shoulder. The aircrafts IR beam was invisible to the naked eye, but the reflections off our squares would stick out like sore thumbs on their camera. If we were compromised and bodies poured out of the target to take us on, at least P3 would be able to direct the QRF [quick reaction force] to the right place.

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