by Jon Stock
By the time he picked up the phone in a small, book-lined room, his palms were moist, his mouth dry. The caller ID was unknown, but the hiss on the line sounded international.
‘Who is this?’ he asked, but he already knew.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In August 2005, the Bradstone Challenger, a British- and American-built high-performance powerboat, broke the record for circumnavigating Great Britain. Its time of twenty-seven hours and ten minutes still stands.
Five years later, the powerboat was bought by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The DTI in London and the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security had tried to block sale, fearing the Bradstone Challenger’s military potential.
At a press conference in August 2010, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi of the IRGC Navy told AFP: ‘It [the Bradstone Challenger] holds the world speed record. We got a copy [on which] we made some changes so it can launch missiles and torpedoes.’
Fadavi added that Iran would have reverse-engineered many Bradstone Challengers within a year. ‘We will be everywhere and nowhere to face the enemies.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Big thanks to AFN, who helped with the naval scenes. To former ‘Jungly’ helicopter pilot Jerry Milsom. To Dr Andy Beale, who steered me through anaphylaxis. To Alex Goldsmith and Mike Wright for their French. To Giles and Karen Whittell for their support and American insights. To David Stevenson, for reading the manuscript. To Matt, who had to be ensnared in a honeytrap before revealing the secrets of his cartoon trade. To Mike Strefford, for sharing his knowledge of botnets and anonymous routing. To Sue Hunt for the Riad Lunetoile in Essaouira. To Mark Mangham for explaining mobile-phone technology. To C. Sujut Chandrakumar for his Indian wisdom. To Len Heath for his unswerving optimism and advice. To Will at Watergate Bay, where kitesurfing as an idea took off. To Toby at The Nare, who helped with the opening coastal rescue scene. To Jake Farman for his car knowledge. To Jess Walsh-Waring, for nearly getting the title. To Cécile, Etienne and their children for the real ‘voiture en plastique’, and to Marie Antoinette for the château in France. To Charlotte Doherty, Duncan Spence and Hope for Youth Northern Ireland. To Shirley Roff for her rock-solid support. And to Mrs Bumphrey for checking the latin.
Thanks, as ever, to Sylvie Rabineau at Rabineau Wachter Sanford & Harris in California. To Kevin McCormick at Langley Park, McG at Wonderland Sound and Vision and Jessie Ehrman at Warner Bros. To my peerless agent Claire Conrad, and Rebecca Folland, Tim Glister and Kirstie Gordon at Janklow & Nesbit. And to my inspirational publisher at Blue Door, Patrick Janson-Smith, who has been ably assisted by Laura Deacon, Robert Lacey and Andy Armitage at HarperCollins.
Two excellent blogs provided much insight into the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy, swarm attacks and asymmetric warfare: www.geopolicraticus.wordpress.com and www.informationdissemination.net
Thanks too to Guy Dinmore, Rome correspondent for the Financial Times, who broke the story about the Iranian purchase of the Bradstone Challenger. It was his investigative article in April 2010 that sowed the seed for this story. And to Gordon Carrera, whose book Life and Death: The Art of Betrayal in the British Secret Service has proved invaluable. I can’t thank by name some of those who have helped in person with the intelligence content of this book, but MF, DM and HA, whom I’ve known since Delhi, have once again been invaluable. Thanks also to MC.
Most importantly, I must thank my family. My three brothers, Chris, Andrew and David, have always been supportive, as has Andrea Stock, my stepmother, whose title suggestions nearly made the cut. Stewart and Dinah McLennan, to whom this book is dedicated, have been there throughout, letting me stay at the Nook in Cornwall, where some of this book was written, and helping with the sailing scenes. My three children, Felix, Maya and Jago, have been a constant source of inspiration, helping to solve problems of plot, character and action – particularly action – over the breakfast table.
Above all, I want to thank Hilary, my wife and muse, for riding the ups and downs of the last four years with such patience, faith, love and good humour. The rollercoaster ride began with the publication of Dead Spy Running, took in a Hollywood film deal, and a husband’s mid-life crisis that led to him changing career. Hilary held her nerve when others might have blinked. The ride is far from over, but I could never have got here without her.
By the same author
The Riot Act
The Cardamom Club
Dead Spy Running
Games Traitors Play
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
Blue Door
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk
Published by Blue Door 2012
Copyright © Jon Stock 2012
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2012
Cover design by www.headdesign.co.uk
Additional photographs © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert/Alamy (sand dunes); Visual&Written SL/Alamy (car & background dune); LOOK Die Bildagentur der Fotografen GmbH/Alamy (clouds).
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Source HB ISBN: 9780007300754
Source TPB ISBN: 9780007300761
Ebook Edition © June 2012 ISBN: 9780007457175
Version 1
FIRST EDITION
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 ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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.
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au/ebooks
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollins.com
