The Shadow Project
AN ADRENALINE-FUELLED THRILLER FROM THE MASTER BESTSELLERAN INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY.ONE THAT COULD CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY.Only one man can foil a plot set to change the course of history…Ex-SAS soldier Ben Hope is enjoying life at Le Val, the facility in Northern France where he trains others in the dangerous art of hostage rescue, until a chance incident forces him to take on the role of bodyguard to the Swiss billionaire Maximilian Steiner.The victim of a recent abduction attempt, Steiner believes that a neo-Nazi terror group are bent on seizing a prized document from his personal collection - one that could support claims that the Holocaust never happened.But what initially seemed like a straightforward VIP protection job is turned upside-down by the appearance of a mystery woman from Ben's past. Could he be right about her, or is he losing his edge?On a quest across Europe, Ben finds himself embroiled in a deadly kidnap intrigue and a sinister project that has lain dormant since 1944. The stakes are global - and this time Ben is also fighting to protect the people closest to him…BEN HOPE is one of the most celebrated action adventure heroes in British fiction and Scott Mariani is the author of numerous bestsellers. Join the ever-growing legion of readers who get breathless with anticipation when the countdown to the new Ben Hope thriller begins…
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SCOTT MARIANI
The Shadow Project
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
AVON
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
This ebook edition published by HarperCollins Publishers 2016
First published in paperback by HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010
Copyright © Scott Mariani 2010
Cover design © Henry Steadman 2016
Scott Mariani asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007311903
Ebook Edition © MAY 2016 ISBN 9780007358021 Version: 2018-06-22
Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.
Albert Einstein
The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science.
Adolf Hitler
Contents
The Sonoran Desert
An hourâs drive from Maricopa, Arizona Early May
Rock and dust, scrub and cactus and the blinding white sun beating down. Nobody ever came out here.
The dust from two off-road vehicles drifted upwards into the still air as they bounced and lurched across the arid wilderness. The big silver Subaru 4Ã4 in front crunched to a halt on the stones, doors opened and three men got out.
One of them didnât want to be there. He stood out from the other two, and not just because he was the only Japanese guy and they were white Europeans. He was also the only one with a .45 auto to the back of his head and his wrists bound behind his back. Tape, not cord. Cord would leave a mark, and his captors didnât want that. A length of the same silver duct tape was pressed firmly to his face, muffling his protests. The T-shirt he was wearing was damp with sweat.
His captors knew his name â Michio Miyazaki â and that he was a scientist. Beyond that, it wasnât their concern why this was happening to him.
The bright red Jeep Cherokee following the Subaru pulled up alongside. Its driver killed the engine, stepped down, ran her fingers through her blond hair and wiped the sweat on her jeans. There was no sound except the ticking of hot metal and the feeble protests of the prisoner as the two men started marching him away from the vehicles.
The Jeep was Miyazakiâs, as was the technical equipment in the back. When this was over, it would look as though the scientist had been out here on a research trip, collecting samples. That fitted his profile. He was unmarried, single, no kids, tended to keep to himself, and he wasnât a well man. Nobody would question what was about to take place.
The woman walked around to the passenger side of the Jeep, opened the door and lifted out the small container sheâd been riding uncomfortably beside through the desert. This was one item that didnât belong to Miyazaki. It was a pale blue plastic lunchbox, with tiny air holes pricked in the top. What was inside weighed almost nothing. The woman held it away from her at armâs length. With her other hand she grabbed a shoulder bag from the footwell, then shut the Jeep door and trotted to catch up with the others. As she joined them she could hear the prisoner pleading with them through his gag.
