Best-selling author Andy McNab appointed CBE for literacy work". BBC News. 17 June 2017 . Retrieved 17 June 2017. Pike was hired to do a job to steal things. The real job is to steal a cryptocurrency passkey so that someone would get billions. The whole premise is a bit odd. I like the setup of a clever boy forced into a job he didn't choose himself.

McNab, Andy. "Prologue". Battlefield 3: The Russian. Solomon sat cross-legged on his bed, the disassembled pieces of his US-sourced Colt 45 laid out in front of him. […] Once Dima had been his mentor[,] but Solomon didn't need mentors now.Andy McNab joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment. He served in B Squadron 22 SAS for ten years and worked on both covert and overt special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland. McNab says: "There are literally tens of thousands of people out there, often quite young and from developing countries as well, who find these exploits. McCrum, Robert (27 July 2014). "Bestselling ghostwriter reveals the secret world of the author for hire". The Guardian . Retrieved 16 May 2021.

After leaving the Army, McNab developed and maintained a specialist training course for news crews, journalists and members of non-governmental organisations working in hostile environments. He spent time in Hollywood as a technical weapons adviser and trainer on Michael Mann's film Heat. He was also the technical adviser on the 2005 crime film Dirty. [15] [ bettersourceneeded] There are some similarities between the new character, Nathan Pike, and his creator. Both are from working-class upbringings and had difficult lives. McNab was abandoned as a newborn baby and found on the steps of a London hospital in a Harrods carrier bag. He was fostered, and later adopted by his foster family. McNab, now 63, speaking by phone with a "no-caller ID" from his home in New York City last week, said he has been interested in tech developments since being trained to deploy electronic counter-measures as an infantry soldier in the 1980s.Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK. To date it has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages. The CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. The BBC's film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, was shown on primetime BBC 1 television in 1999 and released on DVD in 2000. And when he's sprung from a Cambodian prison by a woman calling herself Melody Jones, he's made an offer the likes of which he's never seen before.