'A riveting true-life adventure by an elite former soldier - a gripping, rollercoaster read.' Damien Lewis"Shoot first, shoot fast, shoot last."Darren Franklin, hostage rescuer, recalls a case which stood out from the rest.This is a tense retelling of the real events of Franklin's work as a hostage rescuer from his insider perspective. Escaping the Empire grants an insight into the profession in general - and the events surrounding an international child rescue mission.Franklin's service in the Australian military leads him to the world of private security.The former soldier gets the call to help with the recovery of an abducted child.After an initial surveillance phase a plan is hatched to snatch the child and make a hastily escape out of the country, who were at the time not a signatory of The Hague Convention.The Relph case was a typical and all too common example of parental abduction.But not all goes according to plan. Franklin ends up alone in Tokyo, without intel or his colleagues.To extract the child - and himself - from Japan, Franklin must utilise all his training.With a career in the military and private security, Darren Franklin has conducted high risk operations in some of the world's most dangerous countries. Darren is also the author of The Hostage Rescuer.