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The eighth and final William Warwick novel — set against the 2012 London Olympics.
While I was researching End Game, I went down a rabbit hole that lasted weeks. The 2012 London Olympics happened in living memory — I remember watching the opening ceremony, like everyone else — and yet the deeper I dug into what actually went on behind the scenes that summer, the less I could believe.
Some of what I found made it into the novel. A lot of what I made up turned out to be eerily close to what could have happened. And some of the things readers assume I invented — the cyclists trying to block the Queen, the flag mix-up, the cabbie jumping into the Thames — actually happened.
So I set my readers a quiz. Twenty-two incidents from the London 2012 Olympics. Some are real. Some are from End Game. Below are the answers — see how you did.
If you’ve not yet read the book, beware: a few mild spoilers below.
✅ Fact. Police arrested three Critical Mass protesters as the Queen’s carriage approached the stadium. The cycling activist group had planned the disruption for months — Olympic security officials had been worried about it for weeks.
✅ Fact. Officials thwarted what could have been a lights-out disaster. Cyber threats were monitored throughout the Games, and the digital defences worked overtime.
❌ Fiction. Thankfully, no one did. Olympic doping controversies are sadly real, but this particular sabotage attempt — central to End Game — never happened. Bolt and Farah’s legendary performances stand untarnished.
✅ Fact. The IRA at the time were constantly probing security services with threats. Authorities investigated numerous credible warnings throughout the Olympics. The invisible operation behind the Games was far more extensive than most spectators ever realised.
❌ Fiction. No evidence of this in real life. The actual Olympic power supply was heavily protected, with multiple redundancy systems to prevent any interruption to the global broadcast. This one is pure End Game.
❌ Fiction. Exists only in End Game, not Olympic history — but the scenario reflects vulnerabilities security teams genuinely worried about. Chemical weapon threats were among the scenarios planned for. Thankfully, no such attack materialised.
❌ Fiction. Olympic Village security was tight, and no athlete was abducted. Archer’s imagination explores what might have happened had determined adversaries targeted individual competitors.
✅ Fact. On the eve of the Opening Ceremony, this actually happened. Thankfully, river police rescued him. The bizarre incident caused traffic chaos and was a protest against the Olympic Games Lanes — special lanes from which black cabs were banned.
✅ Fact. Genuinely. The North Korean team refused to play for over an hour. The diplomatic blunder delayed the game at Hampden Park and created international headlines. Olympic organisers issued a formal apology for the mix-up.
✅ Fact — though the “shots” turned out to be far from lethal bullets. Read End Game to find out what they really were. I wouldn’t want to spoil it.
Eleven more to go below — and in the novel itself, all twenty-two thread together into one of the most ambitious thrillers I have written.
❌ Fiction. Airspace over Olympic venues was heavily restricted and patrolled by fighter jets. No activist incursion occurred — though security planners had prepared for similar scenarios.
✅ Fact. When G4S security staffing fell catastrophically short, the last-minute military deployment made headlines worldwide and cost G4S millions in penalties. Soldiers became an unexpected — but welcome — presence at Olympic venues.
❌ Fiction. The Olympics have seen their share of personal tragedies, but this particular tale exists only within the pages of End Game.
✅ Fact. They didn’t get to carry it, but they did contribute to the spirit of the Games — hosting a star-studded event at the V&A in honour of the late Mohammed Ali, raising funds for the charity Sports for Peace.
✅ Fact. The protest snarled traffic around Parliament Square as drivers expressed fury over rules they claimed devastated their livelihoods during what should have been a lucrative period.
✅ Fact. The 7/7 bombings of July 2005 killed 52 people and injured hundreds more. The shadow of that attack hung over Olympic planning, strengthening the resolve to deliver a safe Games seven years later.
✅ Fact. A 17-year-old sprinted from the crowd in Gravesend, Kent, before security tackled him. The torch relay continued uninterrupted despite his soggy protest attempt.
❌ Fiction. The grisly post-Games discovery exists only in End Game. The sand pits were removed intact. No macabre secrets beneath.
✅ Fact. A controversial legacy arrangement. The hotly debated deal saw taxpayers shouldering most conversion costs while the Premier League club gained a world-class venue at a fraction of market value.
❌ Fiction. London Transport Police maintained heightened vigilance throughout the Olympics. They thankfully never encountered this particular horror scenario.
❌ Fiction. An amusing scenario, but pure invention. Olympic organisers took counterfeiting extremely seriously and employed sophisticated security features in official tickets. Anyone caught with fakes was turned away — not given special seating.
✅ Fact. One billion people watched, enraptured, as Her Majesty made her acting debut alongside Daniel Craig. The royal stunt caused such shock that medical assistance was surely required for some overwhelmed fans. Anyone who felt woozy at the sight of the monarch plummeting through the sky — please get in touch.
If you found this fascinating, the novel itself takes all twenty-two of these — fact and fiction alike — and weaves them into the final William Warwick story.
End Game is the eighth and final book in the William Warwick series — Commander William Warwick, head of the Olympic security team, in a race against time as London hosts the world.
Want to start the series from the beginning? See all eight William Warwick novels in order.