Product Description

Operating in the dangerous underworld of the south of France, where al-Queda has embarked on a panicked roundup of funds using the ancient banking system of hawalla, Stone is in at the deep end of a very dirty war.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24361 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

From the Back Cover
A Zodiac inflatable slips away from a submarine off the North African coast. If he hadn't needed American citizenship so badly, Nick Stone wouldn't have agreed to do this one last job, but the CIA's offer of a new life in the United States, and the chance to share it with Carrie, the woman he's fallen in love with, is one he cannot refuse.

The job seems simple enough for a man of his particular skills: infiltrate the hostile and violent republic of Algeria, kill a money-laundering local businessman, and bring back his severed head to the West. Stone isn't told why the man has to die like this, and there are some questions you just don't ask.

But with events unfolding dangerously fast, Stone realizes that he has by no means been told the full story. Operating in the perilous underworld of the south of France, Stone is in at the deep end of a very dirty war. In the most daunting mission he has yet undertaken, Stone ultimately finds himself confronted by the most desperate dilemma a man could ever face.

About the Author
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 Army's 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 in 1998 starring Sean Bean, and Immediate Action. He is the author of the bestselling novels, Remote Control, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last Light, Liberation Day and Dark Winter. Besides his writing work, he lectures to security and intelligence agencies in both the USA and UK.

Excerpted from Liberation Day by Andy McNab. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1

TUESDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2001, 23:16 hrs

The submarine had broken surface ten minutes earlier, and its deck was still slippery beneath my feet. Dull red torchlight glistened on the black steel a few metres ahead of me as five of the boat's crew feverishly prepared the Zodiac inflatable. As soon as they'd finished it would be carrying me and my two team members across five kilometres of Mediterranean and on to the North African coast.
One of the crew broke away and said something to Lotfi, who'd been standing next to me by the hatch. I didn't understand that much Arabic, but Lotfi translated. 'They are finished, Nick - we are ready to float off.'
The three of us moved forward, swapped places with the submariners, and stepped over the sides of the Zodiac on to
the anti-slip decking. Lotfi was the cox and took position to the right of the Yamaha 75 outboard. We bunched up near him, each side of the engine. We wore black bobble hats and gloves, and a 'dry bag' - a GoreTex suit - over our clothes with rubber wrists and neck to protect us from the cold water. Our kit had been stowed in large zip-lock waterproof bags and lashed to the deck along with the fuel bladders.
I looked behind me. The crew had already disappeared and the hatch was closed. We'd been warned by the captain that he wasn't going to hang around, not when we were inside the territorial waters of one of the most ruthless regimes on earth. And he was willing to take even fewer risks on the pick-up, especially if things had gone to rat shit while we were ashore. No way did he want the Algerians capturing his boat and crew. The Egyptian navy couldn't afford to lose so much as a rowing-boat from their desperately dilapidated fleet, and he didn't want his crew to lose their eyes or bollocks, or any of the other bits the Algerians liked to remove from people who had pissed them off.
'Brace for float-off.' Lotfi had done this before.
I could already feel the submarine moving beneath us. We were soon surrounded by bubbles as it blew its tanks. Lotfi slotted the Yamaha into place and fired it up to get us under way. But the sea was heaving tonight with a big swell, and no sooner had our hull made contact with the water than a wave lifted the bow and exposed it to the wind. The Zodiac started to rear up. The two of us threw our weight forward and the bow slapped down again, but with such momentum that I lost my balance and fell on to my arse on the side of the boat, which bounced me backwards. Before I knew what was happening, I'd been thrown over the side.
The only part of me uncovered was my face, but the cold took my breath away as I downed a good throatful of salt water. This might be the Mediterranean, but it felt like the North Atlantic.
As I came to the surface and bobbed in the swell, I discovered that my dry bag had a leak in the neck seal. Sea-water seeped into my cheap pullover and cotton trousers.
'You OK, Nick?' The shout came from Lotfi.
'Couldn't be better,' I grunted, breathing hard as the other two hauled me back aboard. 'Got a leak in the bag.'
There was a mumble of Arabic between the two of them, and a schoolboy snigger or two. Fair one: I would have found it funny too.
I shivered as I wrung out my bobble hat and gloves, but even wet wool keeps its heat-retaining qualities and I knew I was going to need all the help I could get on this part of the trip.
Lotfi fought to keep the boat upright as his mate and I leant on the front - or bow, as Lotfi was constantly reminding me - to keep it down. He finally got the craft under control and we were soon ploughing through the crests, my eyes stinging as the salt spray hit my face with the force of pebble dash.
As waves lifted us and the outboard screamed in protest as the propeller left the water, I could see lights on the coast and could just make out the glow of Oran, Algeria's second largest city. But we were steering clear of its busy port, where the Spanish ferries to'd and fro'd; we were heading about ten Ks east, to make landfall at a point between the city and a place called Cap Ferrat. One look at the map during the briefing in Alexandria had made it clear the French had left their mark here big time. The coastline was peppered with Cap this, Plage that, Port the other.

Customer Reviews

Head and shoulders above the rest
This is a must read for any fan of the genre. McNab's writing has got better and better with each of his books, and his realism and 'been there, done that' aura is unmatched.

I became a fan after reading Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action. I greatly anticipated his foray into the fictional world, and have not been disappointed. Now comes Liberation Day, his 5th (?) Nick Stone adventure.

The realism of McNab's writing is what sets it apart. No gadgets, no satellites, no giant technological leaps. His characters are believable, they do believable things, and they use common tools. His Leatherman is his best friend.

If you've never read McNab, then I highly recommend him to you. Do yourself a favour and read his books in order. You'll realize just how far short the rest of the pack has fallen.

Excellent book but completely different style
Having read all previous Andy McNab books and thoroughly enjoyed every page I can safely say that this latest offering has continued this trend.

If you liked his previous books where constant enemy evation and firefights flow from page to page this book won't compare. It is gritty and highly realistic with a must-carry-on-reading storyline but not because of the non stop action, it relies on the day to day realism of Nick Stone's work to carry it through, which it does superbly.

All in all a great read and highly recommended.

Thumb blistering.
Two days ago I took the book from its new home, the shelf above my p.c. with all McNab's others.......I have heard people say such things as..."Oh, I couldn't put it down, it was rivetting". I had never known quite how you could run your life around a book. But with this one, I had to.
Every page I turned got me deeper and deeper into the plot. (Being ex-army myself, I could almost live the story with him.)
It's a story of the ever increasingly important anti/counter terrorism where West meets all sorts including the al-Qaeda.
New friends are made(and lost) and it seems that they have no allies except themselves and the local cafes. Always on the move and continually chasing after the 'bad guys', Nick's back to kick ass. (But not before he gets his own kicked first).
The way in which McNab makes the book lead up to each of the events that happen, really have you compelled and left guessing as to what the hell's he going to do now? and then boooom (nice one Hubba) he comes in with something that you wouldn't have dreamed of.
Parts of the book had me clenching my hands while holding it as if I was trying to push my fingers through the covers. I was sure I would have blisters on my thumbs where I had squeezed the book so hard as I took the pain that McNabs characters were receiving. It really felt you were part of the story.
The only bad bit about the book was....it had an end.