Battle Sight Zero (2019)

A searing novel of trust and betrayal in the fight against terrorism. The Kalashnikov AK47 is a weapon with a unique image, symbol of freedom fighters and terrorists across the globe. In a fanatic's hands, inside a crowded shopping mall, it can bring death and mutilation to scores of people in a matter of seconds. MI5 have struggled for years to keep this rifle out of Britain. Andy Knight is a young truck driver. Last year he was doing something different and had another name. Next year, if he survives, he'll be someone else again. That is the dangerous, lonely life of an undercover officer. Andy has befriended Zeinab, a young Muslim student from a small Yorkshire town who is a central part of a murderous, extremist plot. Connections have been made through a veteran Manchester gangster with a source of AK47s in the impoverished, drug-ridden, high rise estates of Marseilles. If Zeinab can find a driver and bring one rifle home on a test run, many more will follow: this is the nightmare scenario for the security forces - with them would come killing on an horrendous scale. Zeinab is both passionate and attractive, and Andy had had drilled into him that the golden rule of undercover work is not to get emotionally close to the target. But, sometimes rules are difficult - impossible - to keep to. Battle Sight Zero follows Andy and Zeinab on their path to the lethal badlands of the French port city, simultaneously tracking the extraordinary life journey of the veteran blood-soaked weapon they are destined to be handed there.