The Dust Will Never Settle (39 page)

Acknowledgements

T
his book would never have been possible if it had not been for certain people who came into my life at the right time. Al Zuckerman of Writers House, who was invaluable in giving the story shape and holding my hand from start to finish. Fran, Avital, Idit, Gabriella, Jawad, Lilach, Ido, Karim, Amatullah and Lynette, to name a few more, who shared priceless insights to their wonderful countries and various other aspects that flummoxed me. They made me feel emotionally connected to the characters in a special way. To each one of you, I offer my humble and heartfelt thanks.

To my wonderful family for giving me the time and space to indulge in the (almost) solitary love of my life: writing.

To P.M. Sukumar, Karthika V.K., Neelini Sarkar, Natasha Puri, N.S. Krishna and Amit Sharma at HarperCollins India – as always for the support and encouragement they have provided me over the past five years.

To my comrades-in-arms in the Indian Armed Forces who were kind enough to ensure that I did not make any major blunders while writing about tactics, weapons and weapon systems. However, I must stress that all technical data used in this book has not been provided by anyone, it is already in the public domain and available on the Internet and in libraries.

To the National Arts Council of Singapore for providing me the wonderful opportunity to finish this book in double-quick time. Singapore has been a fantastic breeding ground for me, freed me from so many worries and enabled me to focus single-mindedly on writing.

And, of course, last but not the least, to each one of you, dear readers, who have egged me on with praise and criticism by writing to me, by blogging about my books and, of course, buying them…

Any errors, factual or technical, that still exist in this book are solely my fault or have been deliberately left in there by me to prevent any misuse of a technology or an idea.

About the Author

An alumnus of La Martiniere College, Lucknow, the National Defence Academy, Pune, and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Mukul Deva was commissioned in December 1981 into the Sikh Light Infantry of the Indian Army. He took early retirement from the army after fifteen years of service, including a decade of combat operations in India and overseas. Now settled in Singapore, he is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and Executive, Business and Creativity Coach. Mukul is also a mentor on the UNITAR Afghanistan Fellowship. He is the author of:

For more about him, please visit his website:
www.mukuldeva.com

Praise for Mukul Deva

'The God of all things… it is tough describing Mukul Deva.’

– Business World

‘Deva has a Nostradamus touch.’

– The Statesman

‘India’s literary storm trooper.’

–
Business Standard

‘You can smell the gunpowder. Such is the power of the words of Mukul Deva… India’s first military action thriller writer.’

–
The Hindu

‘India’s only military thriller writer.’

–
The Week

‘Here comes India’s Clancy or Ludlum or Forsyth.’

–
Outlook

‘Mukul Deva wears the crown of India’s premier military thriller writer with great skill and panache.’

–
www.indepepal.com
‘India finally has a writer of international caliber in the genre of military fiction.’

–
First City

‘Deva is a quintessential literary storm trooper… his books are fast-paced thrillers that have broken new ground.’

–
Yuva

Praise for the
Lashkar
Series

‘Exciting... with some action, some introspection, some retrospection... A racy read.’

–
The Times of India

‘An edge-of-the-seat-thriller… His insightful writing is lucid... Deva can play political commentator and soothsayer of national defence and novelist… a heady cocktail of chill and thrill.’

–
The Hindustan Times

‘Fast and furious... the action is non-stop, more sophisticated and terrifyingly real… moves seamlessly across a dozen time zones… thoroughly entertaining and extremely well-researched.’

–
Business Standard

‘Deva is an equal with the likes of Robert Ludlum and Sidney Sheldon… a tight plot bound together by intricate but brilliant narration leaves the reader in awe… Deva’s biggest strength is the smoothness of his prose, crisp and fast moving, and you never get distracted from the story.’

–
The Deccan Herald

‘
Full of excitement and suspense... the emotive quality in Deva’s writing is powerful and the logic crisply military… a surprisingly touching statement from a man who has lived by the gun.’

–
Express Buzz

‘The ease with which Deva combines well-known facts with popular fiction makes for a fantastic read… his writing style is top-notch… the story is tight and gripping.’

–
First City

‘A riveting read… unnervingly prophetic… heartbreaking… a must read… he paints the picture of geo-politics and terrorism with fantastic clarity.’

–
The Hindu

‘
Simply superb… the descriptions are vivid, the plot racy and the detail very convincingly developed.’

–
Mid Day

‘Taut and gripping... technical knowledge and research are remarkable, as is the plotting and the premise. Great read for the fans of Tom Clancy.’

– Delhi Times

First published in India in 2012 by
HarperCollins
Publishers
India

Copyright © Mukul Deva 2012

ISBN: 978-93-5029-331-7

Epub Edition © December 2012 ISBN: 978-93-5029-944-9

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Mukul Deva asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction and all characters and incidents described in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins
Publishers
India.

Cover design Riti Jain Dhar
Cover photograph Getty Images

For sale in the Indian subcontinent only

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