CALYPSO

About the Book

The secret of what happened to the weapons of mass destruction – if they ever existed, died with Saddam Hussein on the gallows. Or did it? The United Nations teams of nuclear, biological and chemical scientists who searched for the WMDs were on a hiding to nothing, looking for something that Saddam Hussein had had ten years to hide in a landmass the same size as the United Kingdom. All of those involved in the hiding of those weapons had been murdered – some by Saddam Hussein himself, so we are told – or had they? One man who knew a great deal about the research and production of biological and chemical weapons had been sent to the USA just prior to the destruction of the World Trade Centre’s twin towers in September 2001. In the 9/11 aftermath of mass arrests by the CIA, living under an alias, that man was incarcerated, along with some 600 other suspected terrorists, in Camp X-ray at Guantanamo Bay. He was a relative of ‘Chemical Ali’ and had been the instrument of the mass gassing of the Kurdish enclave in Northern Iraq in 1988.

His real identity and his location in Camp Delta – to which all ‘illegal combatants’ were moved in Guantanamo Bay in April 2004 - were known by two parties – one wanted to achieve his release to kill him very slowly to ensure he suffered as much as the thousands of Kurds he gassed with a cocktail of Lewisite and Sarin. The other wanted him released because of his knowledge of where Saddam Hussein had hidden his store of biological and chemical weapons so that they could carry out the postponed atrocity in the UK which had been planned to coincide with 9/11 in the USA.

But how is all this connected to the disappearance of charter yachts in the Caribbean, a British Warship which disappears like the Marie Celeste and a Queen’s ransom of jewels and gold buried on a remote Caribbean island by Blackbeard the Pirate in the 18th Century? To answer those questions, John Gunn is sent to the Caribbean by the British Intelligence Directorate and this assignment leads to a terrifying race against time to prevent a catastrophic terrorist atrocity in London.

About the Author

Brian Nicholson's life has been almost as exciting and eventful as that of John Gunn. Apart from flying, sailing, scuba-diving, skiing, renovating classic cars and being a talented artist and writer, he has led an unusually exciting life as a soldier. This has varied from active service to negotiator extraordinary in Beijing to rescue the 1984 Anglo/Sino Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong. As the personal Military Adviser to Ghana's Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings, he assisted in the planning of the military intervention in Liberia in 1991. As the Defence AttachÌ© in Jakarta, his highly successful expedition to unlock the mystery of what happened to the ill-fated ‰*÷Operation Rimau‰*ª, the WW2 Australian commando raid on Japanese shipping in Singapore, received wide press coverage at the time. His first book, 'GWEILO' focuses on a plot to prevent the return of Hong Kong to China. His second book, 'AL SAMAK ' is about Sadam Hussein's efforts to prevent the invasion of Iraq in 2003 with the acquisition of nuclear weapons from Russia. The third book 'ASHANTI GOLD' uses his exciting exploits in West Africa as a colourful backdrop to a novel about the chaos and corruption in Africa. His fourth book, 'FIRE DRAGON' uses material from his experience as a Defence AttachÌ© in Jakarta as an ideal backdrop for a plot around Indonesia‰*ªs flirtation with communism and North Korea's single-minded determination to develop a nuclear weapon and the means of delivering it. The fifth novel ‰*÷CALYPSO‰*ª draws on his considerable knowledge of the Caribbean and its history, geography, political intrigue and piracy to reveal a catastrophic terrorist plot that had been planned to coincide with the destruction of the World Trade Centre. Brian Nicholson is married with two adult daughters and continues to write, paint, play golf and restore classic sports cars. He is currently writing John Gunn‰*ªs sixth assignment for the British Intelligence Directorate.