Visceral and compelling, <b>Eight Lives Down</b> is the most exciting and nerve-jangling work of military non-fiction since <i>Bravo Two Zero</i>.<br><br>If fate is against me and I&#8217;m killed, so be it, but make it quick and painless. If I&#8217;m wounded, don&#8217;t let me be crippled. But above all, don&#8217;t let me fuck up the task.<br><br>So goes the bomb technician&#8217;s prayer before every bomb he defuses. For Chris Hunter, it is a prayer he says many times during his four-month tour of Iraq. His is the most dangerous job in the world &#8212; to make safe the British sector in Iraq against some of the most hardened and technically advanced terrorists in the world. It is a 24/7 job &#8212; in the first two months alone, his team defuses over 45 bombs. And the people they&#8217;re up against don&#8217;t play by the Geneva Convention. For them, there are no rules, only results &#8212; death by any means necessary.<br><br>The job of a Bomb Disposal officer is a lonely one. You are alone with the sound of your own breathing and the drumming of your heart in a protective suit in forty-plus degrees of heat. The drawbridge has been pulled up behind you as you advance on your goal. It&#8217;s just you and the bomb.<br><br>But for Chris Hunter, just when life couldn&#8217;t get any more dangerous, the stakes are raised again.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>