Ultimate Weapon

Three people. Three stories. And a desperate race for survival in a country caught up in the hell of war.

Nick Scott fought in the SAS—the elite Special Forces unit of the British Army—during the first Gulf War. Captured and tortured, he was left a broken man. His daughter Sarah is a beautiful young scientist at Cambridge University who appears to have cracked one of the great scientific secrets of our age—cold fusion. Now, she has vanished. Sarah’s longtime on-and-off boyfriend, Jed Bradley, is one of the SAS’s toughest young soldiers. Nick and Jed have never gotten along because Nick doesn’t want his daughter dating a soldier. Deep down, Jed reckons he joined the SAS just to win Nick’s approval.

Reluctantly, the two men combine their efforts to rescue Sarah and soon they are caught up in a global power play—a deadly web of intrigue in which Nick and Jed encounter a traitorous scientist willing to sell out his country; a sinister Arab intent on destroying Western civilization; and a beautiful but manipulative intelligence agent whose motives are unclear.

Nick and Jed must fight their way through a war-ravaged Iraq as the regime of Saddam Hussein collapses around them. It is a heart-stopping desperate race to find the woman they both love—and to unlock the secret of the Ultimate Weapon

International bestselling author and real-life SAS hero Chris Ryan brings nonstop battle action to this pulse-pounding military thriller set in Iraq.

Publishers Weekly

The apparent intelligence snafus that led up to the Iraq War provide the backdrop for this intricately plotted thriller from bestselling British author Ryan (The One That Got Away). Sarah Scott, a Cambridge University graduate student conducting nuclear research, goes missing just before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Her father, Nick Scott, a former SAS trooper who was captured in the first Gulf War and tortured in Saddam's dungeons, and Sarah's boyfriend, Jed Bradley, a current SAS member, join forces to find her. Naturally, Nick and Jed despise each other, but a lovely and extremely devious female intelligence agent makes sure they cooperate. Ryan, himself an SAS veteran of the first Gulf War, makes his two heroes' actions and motivations credible. The book offers an ingenious answer as to why Saddam was "really" overthrown, though those who know their armor may have a few nits to pick with how the author describes the way a Russian T-55 tank works. (Feb.)

Chris Ryan joined the SAS in 1984. During his ten years in the elite squadron, he was involved in overt and covert operations, and was sniper team commander of the anti-terrorist team. During the Gulf War, Chris was the only member of an eight-man team to escape from Iraq. For this he was awarded the Military Medal. For his last two years he was selecting and training potential recruits for the SAS.