Ben & Joe are returning home after being rescued by Beth from a bestial prison in southern Iran. Beth is worried about Ben after she has broken some personal news, and Joe returns to UK to find his sister has been kidnapped. Their dreams of a civilised return to normality are but a dream.
An arson attack in a mid-west town in the US and a senator with many business interests begin a sequence of events leading to Africa and the Middle East, where a sadistic jihadist leader is planning the first attack that will disrupt shipping and cause a major economic crisis in the developed world. It is the catalyst and others will follow.
One man is planning a takeover of his own, but in a subtle, insidious manner. Sinclair de Montefiore is very young to be the leader of his august organisation; one that has existed since the Renaissance, and possibly much earlier. Their agents are located across the globe, many in sensitive positions, advising government ministers, corporate executives and the media.
Ben agrees to an assignment closer to home in the West Bank, but his curiosity and questioning is resented and he finds himself drawn into a bigger picture where friends and foes are found in unlikely places. Gaza, Egypt and Sinai are the regions his investigations take him into, experiencing frustration and fear as his movements encroach on global politics.
Joe has dealings with the local villains who took Saleh, but they are only a small cog; he manages to rescue his sister but in doing so imperils his friends and family and is forced to seek the emir, a huge man with a growing reputation in the world of terrorism.
Ben and Joe’s paths are to cross once more, but in an unusual way; leaving many dead and the continuing question of external manipulation. Enemies find themselves co-operating; but considered allies are found wanting.
Topical news events are expanded and hypothesised upon to produce an all too plausible disaster scenario.