Men of Men (88 page)

OUT NOW

VICIOUS CIRCLE

T
HE LATEST
H
ECTOR
C
ROSS NOVEL BY
W
ILBUR
S
MITH

LOVE. LOSS. REVENGE.

On the far side of the boggy hollow, Hazel’s Ferrari was just topping the crest of the hill. Hector realized that they had been neatly cut off from each other by the
van and bike.

‘Hazel!’ Hector shouted her name as all his feral instincts kicked in at full force. ‘They are after Hazel!’ He grabbed his mobile phone and punched in her
number.

A disembodied voice answered the call: ‘The person you have called is presently unavailable. Please try again later.’

When Hector Cross’s new life is overturned, he immediately recognizes the ruthless hand of an enemy he has faced many times before. A terrorist group has re-emerged – like a deadly
scorpion from beneath its rock.

Determined to fight back, Hector draws together a team of his most loyal friends from his former life in Cross Bow Security, a company originally contracted to protect his beloved wife, Hazel
Bannock, and her company, the Bannock Oil Corp. Together they travel to the remotest parts of the Middle East, to hunt down those who pursue him and his loved ones.

For Hazel and Hector have a child, a precious daughter, who he will go to the ends of the earth to protect. And brutal figures from the Bannock family’s past – thought long gone
– are returning, with an agenda so sinister that Hector realizes he is facing a new breed of enemy. One whose shifting attack and dark secrets take Hector to the heart of Africa and to a
series of crimes so shocking they demand revenge.

PRAISE FOR WILBUR SMITH

‘Wilbur Smith rarely misses a trick’

Sunday Times

‘The world’s leading adventure writer’

Daily Express

‘Action is the name of Wilbur Smith’s game and he’s a master’

Washington Post

‘The pace would do credit to a Porsche, and the invention is as bright and explosive as a fireworks display’

Sunday Telegraph

‘A violent saga . . . told with vigour and enthusiasm . . . Wilbur Smith spins a fine tale’

Evening Standard

‘A bonanza of excitement’

New York Times

‘A natural storyteller who moves confidently and often splendidly in his period and sustains a flow of convincing incident’

Scotsman

‘Raw experience, grim realism, history and romance welded with mystery and the bewilderment of life itself’

Library Journal

‘Extrovert and vigorous . . . constantly changing incidents and memorable portraits’

Liverpool Daily Post

‘An immensely powerful book, disturbing and compulsive, harsh yet compassionate’

She

‘An epic novel . . . it would be hard to think of a theme that was more appropriate today . . . Smith writes with a great passion for the soul of Africa’

Today

‘I read on to the last page, hooked by its frenzied inventiveness piling up incident upon incident . . . mighty entertainment’

Yorkshire Post

‘There is a streak of genuine poetry, all the more attractive for being unfeigned’

Sunday Telegraph

‘Action follows action . . . mystery is piled on mystery . . . tales to delight the millions of addicts of the gutsy adventure story’

Sunday Express

‘Action-crammed’

Sunday Times

‘Rattling good adventure’

Evening Standard

MEN OF MEN

W
ILBUR
S
MITH
was born in Central Africa in 1933. He was educated at Michaelhouse and Rhodes University. He became a full-time
writer in 1964 after the successful publication of
When the Lion Feeds
, and has since written over thirty novels, all meticulously researched on his numerous expeditions world-wide. His
books are now translated into twenty-six languages.

Find out more about Wilbur Smith

by visiting his author website,

www.wilbursmithbooks.com

THE NOVELS OF WILBUR SMITH

T
HE
C
OURTNEYS

When the Lion Feeds

The Sound of Thunder

A Sparrow Falls

Birds of Prey

Monsoon

Blue Horizon

The Triumph of the Sun

T
HE
C
OURTNEYS OF
A
FRICA

The Burning Shore

Power of the Sword

Rage

A Time to Die

Golden Fox

Assegai

T
HE
B
ALLANTYNE
N
OVELS

A Falcon Flies

Men of Men

The Angels Weep

The Leopard Hunts in Darkness

T
HE
E
GYPTIAN
N
OVELS

River God

The Seventh Scroll

Warlock

The Quest

Also

The Dark of the Sun

Shout at the Devil

Gold Mine

The Diamond Hunters

The Sunbird

Eagle in the Sky

The Eye of the Tiger

Cry Wolf

Hungry as the Sea

Wild Justice

Elephant Song

Those in Peril

Vicious Circle

First published in the UK 1981 by William Heinemann Ltd

This electronic edition published 2015 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-330-47294-4

Copyright © Wilbur Smith 1981

Cover Images © Shutterstock

The right of Wilbur Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital,
optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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