Cherry Red

by Eben Beukes

Nobody has ever bought a black market nuclear weapon. A miracle, but a fact nonetheless.In December 1991 South Africa announces to the world that she has terminated her nuclear weapons program and plans to destroy the existing six thermonuclear devices.July 1994. Weeks after the new democratically elected Government of Reconciliation takes power the newly appointed Director of the National Intelligence Agency learns that not only did renegade elements in the South African Defence Force retain nuclear capability but at least one of these weapons had surfaced in the hands of an international arms dealer. In consultation with President Nelson Mandela the consensus is that with international goodwill at an all time high and investors scrambling for a slice of the new market the country cannot afford anything that would rock the boat. The bomb has to be found and nobody must ever know it existed.Leaving the director with a little problem, who to trust? In charge of the very organisation that put him behind bars on Robben Island, men with no doubt an agenda all of their own, he needs outside help. Discreet, predictable expert help. Someone who owes him big. So his thoughts turn to Harry Dance, ex-Recce, sometime fellow prisoner on The Island and now the proud owner of terminally ailing Sleepeasy Securities. And just to keep Harry on the straight and narrow the director teams him up with his own right hand man and Harry can’t stand terrorists, not even newly respectable ones.Soon Harry finds himself playing the old game of hunting with the dogs and running with the fox and as the body count mounts he discovers they are dealing with far more than an old fashioned atom bomb. But then Harry had been lied to before and he was still around for one simple reason; when it came to playing dirty he knew all the tricks plus a few that hadn’t made it to the book. But then he had never before been up against a stone killer who made death an emotional experience with a silver handled stiletto...The story behind Red Mercury and the race for the ultimate weapon of terror.Set against the backdrop of the New South Africa this thriller screams across two continents and reaches a nerve searing climax in a storm tossed furiously hunted submarine off Morocco’s Cape Spartel.

428 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 22, 2012