by Chris Ryan
Max blinked at him. He could barely believe what he was hearing. ‘So when it looked like I was going to pass, you set me up?’
‘I looked after you.’
‘By making sure I’d get sent back to my boring life?’ Max was outraged. ‘How is that looking after me? I belong here. Isn’t that obvious?’
‘I’ve made my decision,’ Hector told him.
‘Is that why you kept these photos from me? So I wouldn’t see my parents in military uniform? So I wouldn’t get the idea of joining the army like them?’
Hector inhaled deeply. He nodded.
‘But that didn’t work, did it? Because it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do!’ Furious, Max held up the box. ‘And what would my dad say,’ he demanded, ‘if he was here and he knew I wanted to join the Special Forces Cadets?’
The question hung in the air. For a moment, Max thought Hector wasn’t going to answer. But the older man closed his eyes again. He drew another deep breath before opening them.
‘He would back you every step of the way.’
‘Well, then. If he would do it, why can’t you?’
There was a long, heavy silence. Hector looked like a man in torment.
‘We have a saying in the military,’ he said quietly, at last. ‘Train hard, fight easy. It means that the tougher the training, the more likely you are to stay alive on operations. If you stay, you and your team will train harder than any Special Forces Cadets have ever trained. I will be your worst nightmare. I will push you to the limit. Then I’ll push you further. There will be days when you’ll hate me, and this place, more than you could ever imagine. Your life here will not be easy. It will be mentally tough and physically brutal. You will get no thanks and no praise. That’s the only way I can be sure that you will survive. Because, believe me, what happened today – that was a walk in the park.’ He stared out of the window. ‘It’s up to you, Max,’ he said. ‘It’s your choice.’
Outside, Angel was handing Lukas a small box. Lukas opened it and removed something Max couldn’t see. Woody gave Angel another box and she stood in front of Sami, saying something, before making the next presentation. Max sprinted to the door. But before he left, he looked back. ‘Hector,’ he said, ‘thank you.’
Hector didn’t answer.
Max hurtled down the stairs, taking three steps at a time. He sprinted across the hall and past the photograph of his dad. As he burst out of the front door of Valley House he saw another helicopter setting down at the landing zone, but he didn’t stop to see who it was carrying. Instead, he hurtled around the side of the house to the parade ground. Angel was handing Abby her box. She and Woody watched with surprise as Max ran up to them and took his place in the line.
‘Give me one of those,’ he said.
Angel hesitated. Then she looked up at the first-floor window. The cadets turned to look too. Hector was there, broad-shouldered and grim-faced. For a moment he didn’t move. But then, very slowly, he nodded.
Sami gave a low whistle. Abby smiled broadly. Lukas was expressionless. Max couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
‘I guess you’d better have this, Max,’ Angel said. She handed him the box. Max opened it. It contained a shiny enamelled coin with a black-and-white insignia: a star, with two chevrons underneath and wings on either side. He took it out and turned it round. The flip side bore the letters ‘SFC’.
‘Welcome to the Special Forces Cadets, Max,’ Angel said. ‘We’re glad you’re here.’
Carefully, Max slid the challenge coin back in its box. Sami and Abby crowded round him. Sami slapped him excitedly on the back and Abby kissed him on the cheek. Only Lukas stayed slightly apart. When Sami and Abby had finished congratulating him, Max stepped up to the fourth member of their team. There was a moment of awkwardness. Then Lukas held out his right hand. Max took it and gripped it firmly. Lukas smiled. It was the first time Max had seen him do that.
‘We were rivals before,’ Lukas said quietly. ‘We’re brothers now.’ Without warning, he embraced Max.
‘Easy, big guy,’ Max said in a strained voice. Lukas’s grip was very strong.
‘Cadets! Fall in line!’ Woody’s voice, normally so friendly, had an edge to it. Max, Lukas, Abby and Sami stood in a row. ‘It won’t have escaped your attention that we’re missing a member. We’ve heard from Jack’s medical team. He’s badly concussed. There’s a chance of permanent injury. We won’t be seeing him again.’
The cadets watched Woody solemnly. Max couldn’t help remembering Jack’s bruised and bloodied face. Hector was right: that could have been any of them. It was a sobering thought.
‘The Special Forces Cadets have always operated in units of five. We’re glad to have Max on the team. But that still means we’re down a cadet. The good news is, we’ve found the perfect replacement. They’ve just arrived.’
Max blinked heavily. The helicopter. It must have brought the fifth cadet to Valley House.
‘Who is it?’ Lukas said, echoing everyone’s thoughts. ‘You can’t put people back on the team if they failed selection. They’ve got to be up to the job. Hector said so himself.’
A mischievous smile played over Angel’s lips. ‘Oh, our fifth member is up to the job,’ she said. ‘More than up to the job, wouldn’t you say, Woody?’
It was Woody’s turn to smile. ‘Reckon so,’ he said.
The cadets turned to see a figure approaching. It was a girl. She looked Chinese, and had long straight hair. She had a rucksack slung over one shoulder and was looking around nervously, as if she was lost.
Max grinned. It was Lili.
‘Martial arts expert, fluent in four languages, photographic memory and pretty good at thinking on her feet,’ Angel said. ‘Oh, and she saved everybody’s lives today. She was orphaned three years ago, I’m sorry to say, but I reckon she’s just what we’re looking for, don’t you? Why don’t you all take her to get something to eat? Martha’s waiting for you in the dining room.’
‘Hope she likes stew,’ Woody muttered. The others laughed and headed across the parade ground towards Lili.
‘Hold on, Max,’ Angel said.
‘Er, can it wait?’ Max was eager to join the others.
‘We wanted to tell you something. I don’t know if Hector told you anything about the history of the SFC?’
‘He kind of mentioned it.’
‘Well, we were part of the first cadet team.’
‘The two surviving members?’ Max said, remembering what Hector had told him.
They nodded solemnly. ‘Your dad trained us up,’ Woody said. ‘So we knew him well. He’d have been proud of what you did today.’
‘Thanks,’ Max said. ‘I appreciate it. Look, I …’ He glanced over at the other cadets, who were crowding around Lili.
‘Off you go, mate,’ Woody said. ‘Enjoy tonight. Tomorrow the hard work starts.’
‘Yeah,’ Max said. ‘Hector mentioned something about that too.’
‘I thought he might have done.’
Max hurried over to the others. They were a team now, and he wanted to be part of it. But as he left the two Watchers, he overheard Angel talking to her companion. There was an emotional catch in her voice.
‘Special Forces Cadets, all present and correct,’ she said.
Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan was born in 1961 in a village near Newcastle. At the age of sixteen he attached himself unofficially to ‘C’ Squadron of 23rd Special Air Service, the territorial regiment based at Prudhoe, in Northumberland. Over the next seven years he covered hundreds of miles of moor and mountain on training exercises.
In 1984 he joined 22nd SAS, the regular Regiment, and completed three tours which took him to many parts of the world on operations and exercises. He also worked extensively in the counter-terrorist field, serving as an assaulter, sniper and finally Sniper Team Commander on the Special Projects team.
Chris was part of the SAS eight-man team chosen for the famous Bravo Two Zero mission during the 1991 Gu
lf War. He was the only member of the unit to escape from Iraq, where three of his colleagues were killed and four captured. This was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS, and for this he was awarded the Military Medal. Chris wrote about his experiences in his book The One That Got Away, which was adapted for screen and became an immediate bestseller.
Since then he has written four other books of non-fiction, over twenty bestselling novels and three series of children’s books. Chris’s novels have gone on inspire the Sky One series Strike Back.
In addition to his books, Chris has presented a number of very successful TV programmes including Hunting Chris Ryan, How Not to Die and Chris Ryan’s Elite Police.
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First published in Great Britain in 2018 by
HOT KEY BOOKS
80–81 Wimpole St, London W1G 9RE
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Copyright © Chris Ryan, 2018
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Chris Ryan to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4714-0726-0
This eBook was produced using Atomik ePublisher
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