Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was a private military contractor, or PMC, for ten years. I’ve fought alongside Afghan and Syrian rebels, rescued kidnapped children from inside Pakistan, battled Somali pirates, shoveled the ashes of my best mates off the streets of Baghdad, and tracked down al-Qaeda high-value targets. #2 I had been in the British military, and now I was in Qatar working for Nigel R. He had been my commanding officer in the elite Royal Marines, and now he was running a company called SERAC Ltd. They were hired to protect the prime minister's brother, the foreign minister. #3 My first task was to train a CP unit made up of locals, who would protect the boss when he was in Qatar. The trainees were not elite military, and they had not been through local training or military service. #4 The training team had to expand to accommodate the needs of the boss, who was short but charming and educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. The traveling security detail expanded to eleven men and two women.

This national bestseller is a dramatic insider account of the world of private military contracting. Armored cars, burner phones, top-notch weaponry and top-secret missions -- this is the life of today's private military contractor. Like author Simon Chase, many PMCs were once the world's top military operatives, and since retiring from outfits like US Navy SEAL TEAM Six and the UK's Special Boat Service, they have devoted their lives to executing sensitive and hazardous missions overseas. Working at the request of U.S. and British government entities as well as for private clients, he takes on jobs that require "zero footprint," with no trace of their actions left behind. Chase delivers firsthand accounts of tracking Bin Laden in Afghanistan and being one of the first responders after the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. We see his teams defuse terrorist bombs, guard dignitaries, and protect convoys traveling through perilous territory -- and then there are the really big jobs: top-secret "zero footprint" missions that include searching for High Value Targets and setting up arms shipping networks. The missions in Zero Footprint will shock readers, but so will the personal dangers. Chase and the men he works with operate without government backup or air rescue. If they die serving their country, they remain anonymous. There are no military honors or benefits. Contractors like Simon Chase are the unsung heroes in the war against terrorism, a strong, but largely invisible force -- until now.