Visceral and compelling, Eight Lives Down is the most exciting and nerve-jangling work of military non-fiction since Bravo Two Zero.If fate is against me and Im killed, so be it, but make it quick and painless. If Im wounded, dont let me be crippled. But above all, dont let me fuck up the task.So goes the bomb technicians 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 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 in the first two months alone, his team defuses over 45 bombs. And the people theyre up against dont play by the Geneva Convention. For them, there are no rules, only results death by any means necessary.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. Its just you and the bomb.But for Chris Hunter, just when life couldnt get any more dangerous, the stakes are raised again.