Cold Zero: the sniper's term for the one shot you get at finishing a job. The moment of finality. You can practice until your barrel grows red hot, but Cold Zero - the first irrevocable pull of the trigger - is the only statement anyone will remember. It is not just a moment, it is a state of mind.
The Hostage Rescue Team is the FBI's most specialised, highly trained squadron, equivalent to the Navy's SEALS or the Army's Delta Force. They are charged with only the most dangerous of operations: terrorist capture, hostage situations and other large scale emergencies. Of the hundreds of thousands of US law enforcement officers, only 150 have ever been a member.
In 1987, Christopher Whitcomb left his job writing speeches for a Congressman on Capitol Hill and enrolled in the FBI. Since then he has been involved in all aspects of that organisation, from bank robberies, fugitives and violent crime investigations to a key role within the Bureau's elite Hostage Rescue Team where he distinguished himself as an assaulter and a sniper.
He now occupies a vitally important role within the most secret department of the FBI, the Critical Incident Response Group. The CRIG is the last line of defence, the deepest backstop. If they fail, there will be no one to clean up the mess.
Unlike any book before it, 'Cold Zero' offers a stark first person account from the front lines of a war you can only guess at. This is not a "behind-the-scenes" look inside the FBI - you can get that on the Internet. This is an account of the silent struggle America wages just beneath the headlines, a shadow war against weapons of mass destruction, attacks against unpredictable enemies, against chaos.
'Cold Zero' is one man's journey - but it is also the story of the battle to hold oblivion at bay.
