Zero Hour - Andy McNab

When the beautiful 20-year-old daughter of a Moldovan businessman goes missing from her university, British Intelligence will do anything in its power to track her down. Only one man is skilled and ruthless enough for the job - but for the first time in his life Nick Stone doesn't want to play ball...

FACT: On 5 September 2007, Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear installation in northeastern Syria. Syrian radar - supposedly state-of-the-art - had failed to warn of the incoming assault.

FACT: Unknown to anyone but the Israelis and the radar's manufacturers, the commercial, off-the-shelf microprocessors within it contained a remotely accessible kill switch.

But what is the raid's mysterious connection with the missing student? What is the secret to Britain's security to which she unwittingly holds the key? And when ex-SAS deniable operator Nick Stone is tasked to find and abduct her, why is he not on 'receive'?

I stared at the tiny shadow on the scan. It was hard to believe that this little f****r was going to kill me. I'd always imagined it would be something bigger, the diameter of a fist, a rifle butt or a 7.62. Dying like this? It felt so... pedestrian. I tried to smile. 'I always wondered what a death warrant looked like. Does it have a 'use by' date?'

As Nick walks from the Harley Street clinic, he's become a man with nothing to lose. And he wants to go down fighting...