The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train and Three American Heroes
The 15:17 to Paris is the amazing true story of friendship and bravery, and of near tragedy averted by three heroic young men who found the unity and strength inside themselves when they – and 500 other innocent travellers – needed it most.On 21st August 2015, Ayoub El-Khazzani boarded train #9364 in Brussels, bound for Paris. There could be no doubt about his mission: he had an AK-47, a pistol, a box cutter and enough ammunition to obliterate every passenger on board. Slipping into the bathroom in secret, he armed his weapons. Another major ISIS attack was about to begin, but Khazzani wasn’t expecting Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone. Stone was a martial arts enthusiast and airman first class in the US Air Force, Skarlatos was a member of the Oregon National Guard, and all three were fearless. But their decision, to charge the gunman, then overpower him even as he turned first his gun, then his knife, on Stone, depended on a lifetime of loyalty, support, and faith.Their friendship was forged as they came of age together in California: going to church, playing paintball, teaching each other to swear, and sticking together when they got in trouble at school. Years later, that friendship would give all of them the courage to stand in the path of one of the world's deadliest terrorist organisations.
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First published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC,
a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. 2016
This UK edition HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
FIRST EDITION
© Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone 2016
Motion Picture Artwork © 2018 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780008292294
Ebook Edition © January 2018 ISBN: 9780008287986
Version 2018-01-15
CONTENTS
TUE, AUGUST 18, 11:03 AM
Anthony Sadler:
Still alive dad we’re in Amsterdam and staying at the A&O hostel. We will be here till Friday
Pastor Sadler:
Okay Son—how are you doing?
Anthony Sadler:
I’m great leaving wifi, talk to you in a bit
Pastor Sadler:
Okay
THU, AUGUST 20, 11:07 PM
Anthony Sadler:
Hi dad so it’s 8am on Friday here right now. We head out of Amsterdam to Paris today at 3pm and will get around 6pm. I’ll text you hotel info when I receive it
Pastor Sadler:
Okay son
FRI AUG 21, 4:43 PM
Anthony Sadler:
Call me dad
THALYS TRAIN #9364
Somewhere in northern France.
Five hundred fifty-four passengers on board.
Spencer is holding two fingers against a pulsing wound in Mark’s neck. As the train races through the countryside at over 150 miles per hour, he’s trying to plug the carotid artery because if he doesn’t, Mark dies.
Anthony watches from above.
If there are screams, Anthony doesn’t hear them; if the sound of wind rushing by the windows is loud, he doesn’t register it. He is totally focused. The terrorist is bound, hog-tied on the floor. Mark groans. Anthony feels as if the people lying there below him are the only other people in the world.
The carpet is covered in blood. There is so much blood. It is astoundingly quiet.
The bell that signals the train doors opening and closing is the only other noise, an eerie, antiseptic chirp. Anthony might as well be in the hushed corridors of a hospital. None of it feels real. Did we just do that?
The train moves along quickly, smoothly—normally—as if they’ve imagined everything that just happened. The motion is almost soothing. No one seems afraid. No one seems here. There are no extraneous people around Anthony except the ones who took part in the drama that just played out. No one except the ones he’s immediately concerned with. He seems to have blocked the rest from his mind.
He’s blocked a lot of things from his mind. Including some important things, like the notion that the terrorist might not have been acting alone—that there might be two more, or five, hiding somewhere on board, about to attack. There’s no good reason to think there’s only one. Still, as far as Anthony’s concerned, there’s only one. He’s become wholly absorbed with only this man, solving the problem that is immediately in front of him, and at the moment it is impossible for him to think about anything he cannot immediately see. His brain has walled itself off like a vault, only occasionally letting light in through the cracks and seams in the metal.
Alek is back—where did Alek go? He disappeared with the machine gun, but he’s back now, collecting ammunition and putting weapons in a bag.
Did that all really just happen?
Alek tried to kill a man. While Spencer was trying to choke him. Alek held the machine gun right up to the terrorist’s temple so that the bullet would have opened his head up and passed right into Spencer. Anthony had been trying to help subdue the terrorist when one of his friends almost killed the other. But the gun didn’t go off. Anthony doesn’t know why.
