Operation Assegai

Zine
Title:	Operation Assegai
Publisher:	Nut Hatch & Entropy Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Sara Lansing and Barbara Jones
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1995
Series?:	yes
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Professionals
Language:	English
External Links:	Entropy Press flyer
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Operation Assegai is a gen 160-page Professionals novel in a series by Sara Lansing and Barbara Jones.

The Series

Series order taken from a 1999 Entropy Press flyer. Note that the zine order (and content) differs from what is noted at Palely Loitering.

• Goblin (1992)
• Knife's Edge (1993)
• Operation Assegai (1995)
• Hellburner (1997)
• Deep Fire (1998)
• Hostage London (1999)

Summaries

flyer, note the earlier publication date

Summary from the flyer:

Creators of the popular Knife's Edge from Entropy Express/The Nut Hatch, Lansing and Jones are back with a new B&D generic thriller set in the series universe of the mid-1980s, a powerful adventure that takes Doyle and Bodie to the cold wastes of the Atlantic -- and to another hunting ground, and the midst of a battle the public will hear nothing of. International scandal at the heart of the British Defence Industry! Randle Aerospace are an up and coming hi-tech corporation. They specialise in missiles — new ones, special ones: ultra-violet homing anti-aircraft missiles, "smart" bombardment missiles that can weave through defences... All kinds of things that NATO can't get enough of. Not to mention NATO's little buddies, who have minerals to trade for the weapons that will make kings of princes and tyrants of dictators.

Murder points the way, and CI-5 is drawn into a tangled maze of deception and smooth-talking merchants in the art of war. Bodie has seen them before, so has Cowley, they know a lie when they hear it, and know that Randle's new Assegai Missile, manufactured by Britain under contract to the West African state of M'bala, is a project surrounded with question marks. What is Britain's suddenly paternal interest in this fly-speck country? What political wrangle is there between M'bala and its neighbouring state of Semaranda? Who wants what and how do they plan on getting it?

An old face reappears, an enemy, a friend, a genial host to negotiations. Far from resentment, agents Doyle and Bodie find themselves grateful indeed for the zeal and humour of Colonel Hakim Ojuka, political go-between for parties unknown. Something strange is happening, and with deep foreboding Cowley sends 3-7 and 4-5 to Randle's Atlantic Missile Range, where rockets are launched and tracked from the Hebrides, and from further out on the barren, storm-washed islands of Rockall.

They find the clue, find the reason, and it tips them into an avalanche of trouble. The missiles are ready for shipment to Africa, the orders are signed and sealed, and transport planes are on their way. Is Britain up to no good? Are corrupt ministers incriminating an entire nation? And what can two men, alone and far from home, hope to achieve... Without a little help from their friends?

Reactions and Reviews

Bodie and Doyle spend the bulk of this adventure overseas. The first half of the novel takes place in the Outer Hebrides, the second half in West Africa, with a return of Colonel Ojuka. The lively banter and cross-talk that so epitomizes Bodie and Doyle is done ample justice, and a scenic narrative backs the adventure with a wonderfully photographic depiction of the wild places of Britain and elsewhere.