The unknown soldier

Hidden in the empty vastness of the world's greatest desert the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia a tiny caravan of fugitives and camels moves painfully slowly towards its goal. In extreme heat and exposed to vicious storms, only the strongest and most determined men will survive. Deep in the sands, lost from sight, is the leadership of Al Qaeda, hunted, pursued and regrouping to strike again. Among the Bedouin and Arabs of the caravan, one man stands out. His strength, self-discipline and leadership mark him. He is an Outsider. To look into his face and memorize it is to court death. His identity is masked, his past is blanked from his memory. To him, the leadership is his only family, and his loyalty to the family is total. Searching for him in the limitless sands and dunes are American and British experts in counter-terrorism with a full range of sophisticated electronics at hand. Above him, the unmanned Predator aircraft, invisible in the cloudless skies, carries the Hellfire missiles. But if they fail to find and kill him, if he reaches his family and receives his orders, the Outsider will disappear again, before re-emerging in a teeming western city with a suitcase that will create havoc when it is detonated.