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In 2004, Colonel Nigel Warne, a retired SAS leader of renown learns of a plot to rob a bank of more than twenty-five million pounds. Warne's private security company has been seconded by a shadowy Home Office department to help find and break up a particularly successful armed gang which has been carrying out robberies in the south of England, so far keeping one step in front of the police. The Colonel's well established network of undercover operatives brings him information that the gang intend to considerably up the ante and is currently in the market for some extra hired-in muscle and the services of an expert planner. Warne orders his executive officers to form a mercenary unit with the necessary skills to infiltrate the gang, help it plan and execute the raid, relieve it of the spoils then expose it to the rule of law - but keep the money. The men brought together for the operation are in the main, former elite-force members: SAS, Paras, Royal Marines. There exists a certain ambivalence between these units, even in the field, and fierce competition too. Ex-RSM Matthew Gifford sees himself as 'the best of the best'. Military Medal and Bar. Not many of those around. His recent enforced demob from 3 Para has left the RSM bitter. Bitter and bewildered. Soldiering has been his life. His living. His home is - was - the regiment. His antipathy towards commissioned officers is a problem but Warne needs Gifford to lead the assault group. In action he is fearless, controlled and completely without mercy. Also, Major William Carson. He's currently in prison, but Warne also has to have this top of the range undercover expert and planner in the team. And SAS Staff-Sergeant Jamie McGeechan. His sanity could be questioned but not his courage and strength. Killing a man with his bare hands would not trouble McGeechan so much as not earning some big money. He is badly in debt to both banks and bookmakers. And others: a specialist combat driver, an experienced sniper and Sohail Khan - under the cover of darkness. A woman, Mary McGloughlan, late of the RUC and known as Greenfinch. An ex-REME man with another man's ear in his pocket. Barry Turner, a paramedic from the impoverished Accident and Emergency Department in a Birmingham hospital. Two brothers, Pearson Five-Three and Pearson Four-Seven, heads shaved and heavily tattooed, just returned from the more lucrative killing fields of Basra - and Graham Wright - who was working on how he could best keep a low profile without it being noticed. Colonel Warne and his adjutant set the mercenaries exercises and missions designed to weld them together as a team and provide funds for the primary mission. The bonding comes from making mistakes during training; their innate professionalism gradually rising above their petty differences. The funding, from a successful heist on a people-smuggling gang operating in the target area. Later, there are other problems for Warne to contend with. The raid is successful, carried out with military precision, but there are others who would like a share - or all - of the proceeds. His company has been infiltrated by a rival mercenary outfit. Some of his team are killed during a bloody gun battle between the rival factions. The Colonel has become rich, but he too is a soldier. It's not a matter of morals. Mercenaries are not in the business of that - but the casualties were Company men. His men. He wants revenge.
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