Samarkand Hijack

Samarkand Hijack
David Monnery

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But can the SAS storm a fortress prison held by Muslim terrorists to rescue a group of British tourists?In 1994, in the newly independent state of Uzbekistan, a party of mostly British tourists is on a day excursion from the fabled city of Samarkand when Muslim fundamentalists hijack their bus. Unknown to the hijackers, this particular group contains recently retired ex-SAS sergeant Jamie Docherty, and the rebellious daughter of the British Foreign Minister, already a tabloid favourite back home.Uncertain how to respond to the terrorists’ demands, the Uzbekistan government accepts a British offer of assistance: two members of the SAS crack Counter Revolutionary Warfare wing are dispatched to Samarkand, with instructions to liaise with the local ex-KGB unit.As the negotiations drag on, in the mountain fortress prison Docherty must call on all his formidable expertise and ingenuity to keep his fellow hostages alive, and to prepare them for a prospective rescue mission.The only force likely to have any chance of successfully penetrating the fortress and liberating the prisoners will be a group led by men of the legendary Special Air Service – the SAS!

Samarkand Hijack

DAVID MONNERY

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by 22 Books/Bloomsbury Publishing plc 1995

Copyright © Bloomsbury Publishing plc 1995

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Cover photographs © Nik Keevil/Arcangel Images (soldier); MILpictures, Tom Weber/Getty Images (background); Shutterstock.com (textures)

David Monnery asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008155339

Ebook Edition © December 2015 ISBN: 9780008155346

Version: 2015-11-02

Contents

Cover (#u94713304-241f-5ea5-addc-6ddd2ac2ea50)

Title Page (#ub964ac9a-57aa-525c-894d-fdd3a6693086)

Copyright (#u078dab98-b5ac-5aa4-b098-17148e30104f)

Prologue (#u1d581a5e-1924-5857-9367-06dae32f6dfc)

Chapter 1 (#u1687d403-5ca9-5a3f-a013-ad4ce1792ab6)

Chapter 2 (#u5122089f-07d8-5e9c-92b6-c0bdf38d2521)

Chapter 3 (#u01eac47c-011a-5f73-a4f8-2af82c6d2aba)

Chapter 4 (#u1482954f-9b45-5a37-9d76-81e55058ba26)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

OTHER TITLES IN THE SAS OPERATION SERIES (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Prologue (#ue4f1ade8-500e-58c3-99a8-92ddd94173e4)

Bradford, England, 14 March 1979

It was a Wednesday evening, and Martin could hear the Coronation Street theme music through the wall. His mother was in the back room ready to watch, but he had not been allowed to join her, allegedly because he had homework to finish. The real reason, though, was that there was a sex scandal going on; one of the characters was sleeping with another’s wife, or something like that. His mother didn’t like any of her children watching such things, and certainly not Martin, who at twelve was the youngest of the three.

He continued drawing the blue border around the coastline of England with the felt-tip pen. He liked drawing maps, and he was good at it, both as a copyist and from memory. England, though, was always something of a challenge: it was so easy to make the fat peninsulas too thin and vice versa.

The coastline was finished, and he stopped for a moment. It was dark outside now, so he walked over to draw the curtains across the front windows. The sound of raucous laughter floated down the street; it was probably the youths with the motor bikes who habitually gathered outside the fish and chip shop. Thinking about the latter made Martin feel hungry, even though he’d only had supper an hour or so earlier. His father, brother and sister would be getting chips on their way home from the game, like they always did, but by the time they came through the front door the only thing left would be the smell on their hands.

It was no fun being the youngest. Still, next season he would be able to go with them to the evening games. His father had promised.

Martin stood by the table for a moment, wondering whether to ask his mother again whether he could watch TV with her. But she would only say no, and anyway he didn’t really want to – it was not being allowed that was so annoying.

He sat back down with his map, and started putting in red dots where all the First Division teams played. He had just put in the one for Norwich when there was a knock on the front door.