BEYOND MERCENARY: Money, War, and the Price of Making a Living from Other People’s Conflicts - Couverture souple

GARCIA, MARIO

Couverture souple

ISBN 13 : 9798174767317

Editeur : Independently published, 2026

Synopsis

Some jobs are taken for money. Others out of necessity. And some begin as a contract lasting a few weeks and slowly become a way of life.

For years, I worked wherever companies, governments, and economic interests needed men willing to go where almost nobody else wanted to be. First came Africa. Then Iraq. After that came remote mining compounds, concrete-walled bases, convoys, protected hotels, the Sahel, and merchant ships crossing waters where piracy had turned fear into another business.

I never considered myself a hero.

I never saw myself as a hired killer either.

The contracts used cleaner words: security consultant, protection specialist, contractor, adviser. The word mercenary was almost never written anywhere. But when you are paid thousands of miles from home because somebody needs you to accept risks others would rather avoid, labels begin to matter less.

BEYOND MERCENARY is a first-person testimonial-style novel that enters the world of private military and security contractors from the inside, far removed from the Hollywood image of the invincible soldier.

There are weapons, threats and dangerous places here, but most of the job happens long before anyone fires a shot.

It happens during the waiting.

At airports.

Inside compounds.

In insurance policies nobody reads until somebody gets hurt.

Among men from ten different countries being paid completely different amounts to face the same danger.

Inside companies subcontracting other companies, which in turn subcontract someone else.

Among contractors who swear this will be their final rotation and pack another bag three weeks later.

Inside families that learn how to live without you.

And inside a bank account capable of turning every month away from home into a number that becomes increasingly difficult to refuse.

Across Africa, Iraq, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, the narrator discovers the enormous industry built around insecurity and conflict. Along the way appear names and episodes that helped shape the history of modern private warfare: Executive Outcomes, Blackwater, Sierra Leone, the contractor boom surrounding the Iraq War, maritime security off Somalia and the newer private structures operating alongside state interests.

But this is not an encyclopedia of mercenaries.

It is the story of a man who learns how much people are willing to pay him to stay away from home, how much returning eventually costs, and how easy it is to become addicted to a life in which every problem comes with a mission, a deadline and a daily rate.

Because the real danger does not always begin when you accept your first contract.

Sometimes it begins when you no longer need the money and still find yourself waiting for the next call.

Africa. Iraq. Piracy. Mining compounds. Convoys. Private military companies. Contracts. Money. Men who disappear. Families who wait.

And eventually one question becomes harder than any mission:

What happens when a man who has learned how to make a living from other people’s wars tries to live a normal life again?

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Independently published
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 13: 9798174767317
• Reliure: Paperback
• Nombre de pages: 122
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible