Cobra gold - Damien Lewis

Based on a true story
the world's biggest bank robbery and the SAS's greatest scam.

It is 1976 in war-torn Beirut. Under cover of a massive firefight, an unknown band of armed men blast their way into the Imperial Bank of Beirut. Over the next 48 hours they load three trucks with gold bullion and then disappear without a trace.

Two weeks earlier, a young SAS Major newly arrived in The Regiment had tasked his men with planning just such a Beirut bank robbery
strictly as an exercise only. But when SAS veteran Luke Kilbride presented his plan for the heist, the Major tore it apart as being useless. Kilbride didn't appreciate this jumped-up officer telling him he was a fool and, together with the men in his unit, he decided to prove the Major wrong and rob the bank anyway as a freelance operation. But while the heist went like clockwork, it was just the start of things going wrong for Kilbride and his men. Eventually they were forced to hide the loot and make their getaway.

Thirty years later, Kilbride and his team are planning their return. The only problem is that a powerful enemy is hell bent on finding the gold before they do. Kilbride dreams up an audacious mission as a decoy, but it becomes a race against time to reach the gold before the ruthless Black Assassins can catch up with them.


From the Trade Paperback edition.