Jack Higgins · 1983 · thriller

Jack Higgins's 1983 thriller, written straight after the Falklands War. With the embargo biting, Argentina sends buyers into Europe for more Exocet missiles, and British intelligence sets out to make sure the deal never closes. The work is done in Paris and London by people on both sides who understand that the war will be decided by a small number of French-made weapons.

1. 1
   Buenos Aires

   With the task force at sea and the Exocet stocks running down, the junta authorises a buying mission into Europe - and puts a naval officer with the right languages and the wrong scruples in charge of it.

2. 2
   Paris

   Paris is where the missiles are made and the arms brokers keep their offices, and both sides work the same small world of intermediaries - the Argentines to buy, the British to ensure the sellers never quite deliver.

3. 3
   London

   In London the operation is run by men who cannot be acknowledged, using an Irish gunman and a good deal of money - and the line between stopping a sale and murder in a friendly country is crossed without discussion.

4. 4
   The Falklands

   Eight thousand miles away the fleet is being attacked with the missiles Argentina already has, and every day the brokers are stalled is measured in ships not hit - which is the whole argument for what is being done in Europe.