Burning Angels

Even so, it was several months before the United Nation’s World Health Organisation was able to declare the pandemic over. By then, Simon Chucks Bello had been granted British citizenship and was a part of the Jaeger family.

He’d also been given the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour for those who have made an

exceptional contribution to the security of the United States and to world peace.

However, US President Joseph Byrne did not get to present him with the medal: amidst something of an intelligence-driven scandal, he had been voted out of power. Thankfully.

Jaeger’s team at Amani Beach — Raff, Alonzo, Kamishi and James — had taken a few injuries under intense fire, but they had escaped via the cover provided by the Taranis. All had survived. They still called Jaeger a glory boy and refused to let him forget leaving them to fight it out on that beach.

Irina Narov had made a full recovery — from both the virus and her injuries. But of course she blamed Jaeger for losing her precious commando dagger in the struggle with Jones.

At the time of writing, Hank Kammler — the former deputy director of the CIA — was still at large, location unknown. Unsurprisingly, he was now the world’s most wanted man.

And in the meantime, Jaeger, Ruth, Luke and ‘Bellows’, as he’d been nicknamed, were a family again. And Jaeger had commissioned a new dagger for Narov.

He’d made a special request that the blade be razor sharp.

Also by Bear Grylls

Novels

Ghost Flight

Non-Fiction

Facing Up

Facing the Frozen Ocean

Born Survivor

Great Outdoor Adventures

Living Wild

To My Sons

Mud, Sweat and Tears

A Survival Guide for Life

True Grit

Your Life — Train For It

Extreme Food

Fuel for Life

Mission Survival

Gold of the Gods

Way of the Wolf

Sands of the Scorpion

Tracks of the Tiger

Claws of the Crocodile

Rage of the Rhino

Strike of the Shark

Lair of the Leopard

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to the following: literary agents at PFD Caroline Michel, Annabel Merullo and Laura Williams, for their hard work and effort to support the publication of this book; Jon Wood and Jemima Forrester, and all at Orion — Malcolm Edwards, Mark Rusher and Leanne Oliver — who make up ‘Team Grylls’. Thanks also to all at BGV, for making the movie side of the Will Jaeger thriller series such an exciting reality.

Thanks also to the following: Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, Ollie Morton and Iain Thompson of Avon Protection, for their invaluable insight, advice and expertise on all things CBRN, and their input into the chemical, biological and nuclear aspects of this book, including the defence and protection measures. Chris Daniels and all at Hybrid Air Vehicles, for their unique insight and expertise on all things Airlander, and for pushing the envelope in terms of what is possible with such an airship; to Paul and Anne Sherratt, for such potent insight into Cold War relations immediately following World War Two; to Bob Lowndes, of Autism Wessex, for advice on all things autism and regarding those on the spectrum; to Peter Message, for a youthful critique of the early stages of the manuscript for this book; and to Ash Alexander-Cooper OBE for your technical military advice.

And a final special thank you to Damien Lewis, for helping to build upon what we discovered together in my grandfather’s war chest marked ‘Top Secret’. Bringing those World War Two documents, memorabilia and artefacts to life, in such a modern context, is pure brilliance.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This book is inspired by the true life exploits of my grandfather, Brigadier William Edward Harvey Grylls, OBE, 15/19th King’s Royal Hussars and Commanding Officer of Target Force, the covert unit established at Winston Churchill’s behest at the end of World War Two. The unit was one of the most clandestine bands of operators ever assembled by the War Office, and its mission was to track down and protect secret technologies, weaponry, scientists and high-ranking Nazi officials to serve the West’s cause against the world’s new superpower, the Soviet Union.

No one in our family had any idea of his covert role as Commanding Officer T Force — ‘T’ standing for ‘Target’ — until many years after his death and the release of information under the Official Secrets Act seventy-year rule — a process of discovery that inspired the writing of this book.

My grandfather was a man of few words, but I remember him so fondly from when I was a child growing up. Pipe-smoking, enigmatic, dry-humoured and loved by those he led.

To me, though, he was always just Grandpa Ted.