"MCNAB, ANDY - LIBERATION DAY" - читать интересную книгу автора (McNab Andy)

All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBNs 0593 046188 (cased)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publishers.

Typeset in ll/13#pt Palatino by Falcon Oast Graphic Art Ltd Printed in
Great Britain by Mackays plc, Chatham, Kent

Dedicated to all victims of
terrorism

LIBERATION DAY

One.

TUESDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2001, 23:16 hrs

The submarine had broken surface ten minutes earlier, and its deck was
still slippery beneath my feet. Dull red torchlight glistened on the
black steel a few metres ahead of me as five of the boat's crew
feverishly prepared the Zodiac inflatable. As soon as they'd finished
it would be carrying me and my two team members across five kilometres
of Mediterranean and on to the North African coast.

One of the crew broke away and said something to Lotfi, who'd been
standing next to me by the hatch. I didn't understand that much Arabic,
but Lotfi translated. They are finished, Nick we are ready to float
off."

The three of us moved forward, swapped places with the submariners, and
stepped over the sides of the Zodiac on to the anti-slip decking. Lotfi
was the cox and took position to the right of the Yamaha 75 outboard. We
bunched up near him, each side of the engine. We wore black bobble hats
and gloves, and a 'dry bag' - a GoreTex suit over our clothes with
rubber wrists and neck to protect us from the cold water. Our kit had
been stowed in large zip-lock waterproof bags and lashed to the deck
along with the fuel bladders.

I looked behind me. The crew had already disappeared and the hatch was
closed. We'd been warned by the captain that he wasn't going to hang
around, not when we were inside the territorial waters of one of the
most ruthless regimes on earth. And he was willing to take even fewer
risks on the pick-up, especially if things had gone to rat shit while we