The SAS is operating covertly in the wartorn badlands of northern Syria. They know it will be gritty, bloody and dangerous. But when Regiment legend Danny Black’s unit, codenamed Zero 22, is tasked with a more routine operation, they don’t expect it to end the way it does: in compromise and massacre, orchestrated by the shadowy Wagner Group, a paramilitary organisation in thrall to the Russian president.

Back in the UK, Danny learns that his unit was betrayed by a mole feeding high-level military intelligence to the Russians. Like any SAS man worthy of the name, his first thought is to avenge the men who lost their lives on the Zero 22 op. He has no hesitation in accepting the mission to assassinate the man responsible for the death of his mates.

But the headshed have more complicated plans and Danny finds himself operating with a face from his past whom he never thought he would see again. Together they embark on a high-risk, deniable mission that will require all Danny’s Regiment skills if they are to have any hope of success.

As the mission unfolds, however, Danny learns that darker forces are at play. And when everything he thinks he knows gets turned on its head, he realises that what started out as an act of revenge is just a single play in a conspiracy that will take him across the continents and pit him not only against the highly trained militants of the Wagner Group, but against the Kremlin, the White House and the insidious machinations of the most powerful men in the world.

Tasked with storming mountain strongholds in the desert.

Trained to hunt down the world’s most wanted terrorists.

This is the extraordinary story of 22 SAS.

The history of the modern SAS is one of the great successes of post-war Britain. Since it was revived in 1950 to combat Communist insurgents, the Regiment has gone from strength to strength, fighting covert wars in Oman, Borneo, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, the Persian Gulf and beyond. In the process, it has become one of the most indispensable, and at times controversial, units in the British army

Today, the SAS is regarded as the world’s leading Special Forces unit, renowned for its demanding Selection course and its relentless ability to adapt to the changing nature of warfare. More than anything else, however, it is the determination and ingenuity of the SAS soldiers that has made the Regiment what it is today.

Drawing on his extensive network of contacts and his own experiences, Chris Ryan tells the story of the men on the ground. From the earliest patrols in the Malayan jungle, through to the storming of the Iranian Embassy, the daring raids behind enemy lines in the Gulf War, and up-to-minute missions to capture or kill notorious terrorists – this is the gripping, no-holds-barred account of Regiment operations. Above all, it is a story of elite soldiers fighting, and triumphing, against seemingly impossible odds.