Deniable Assets: Hostages

Within the United Kingdom there has always existed a secret organisation, answerable only to the residing Prime Minister. It has no official budget because nothing it does can be recorded in any archive. Its intelligence sources are MI6 and MI5 but it is part of neither.

It is England's oldest secret service and, because it is unknown, it is above and beyond the laws of the land. Its mandate is to provide solutions to problems that cannot be resolved by political means or through the law of the land.
The organisation is run by only one man, usually a former army officer of high rank. Its agents are recruited – hand-picked for their specialist talents – from various arms of the military. Some come from the ranks of the SAS, others from the Parachute battalions while others are from the Royal Marine Commando's elite SBS. All are volunteers and dedicated to the 'Group' they are assigned to.

For identification purposes the units are known as Groups. There are a number of such groups but none know the identities of members of the other Groups for security reasons. If a member of a Group is killed then he or she is replaced from outside but never from another group. If they are killed on foreign soil efforts are made to bring them back to Britain – if possible – if not they are left behind in unmarked graves. Their existence is always denied and their actions deniable.

Groups have been known to assassinate foreign leaders both in this country and abroad, organise rebellions to bring down unfriendly regimes, support chosen foreign governments. A Group is a deadly force made up of ordinary people who are prepared to forfeit their lives in the interests of their country.

All work to one rule: Do not get caught! They are Deniable Assets!

Group Alpha, who first appeared in Book One of this series, are sent into Lebanon covertly to rescue the British Foreign Secretary who has been kidnapped by a splinter group of the PLO. Lacking reliable intelligence they never the less continue in their mission. From their High Altitude Low Opening insertion into the country they struggle against all odds to bring their their mission to a successful conclusion by finally escaping from a soviet submarine off the coast of Cyprus.