An audio book set in 2011
- Foreign correspondent - Will Carver, an old hack is in Cairo. A catholic priest is giving support, but is he to be trusted? He has some old journalist friends there. Zara, a hotel worker, helps him. Zara's friend Nawal discovers illegal tear gas and gives Will evidence. Nawal's arrested. Will's told that if he stops interfering, Nawal will live. He refuses. She dies. He goes back to London. He asks his boss Naomi for permission to continue research. Pressure is put on her. His ex-colleague Rob is offered to have his salary doubled if he can convince him to give up the research. Rob’s been told that the government will plant child porn on Will's computers anyway. Rob leaks him some info. Will tries to approach the boss of the company who he thinks is illegally selling goods to Egypt. Meanwhile His friend Jean is still in Cairo, looking for evidence. She’s assassinated.
- Ministry of foreign affairs - Rob, ex-journalist, does PR. New boss Craig wants him to suppress the story about tear gas. They're trying to stop a 20% cut in funding. When people put pressure on Rob to suppress the tear gas story he asks Craig if pressure's ever but on him.
- People smuggling - In Eritrea a grandfather pays Mr Adam to get his 2 grandchildren (one a good cyclist) to Europe. They're swindled, but manage to reach the African coast (unlike a third of the people they're with). Only a few reach Lampedusa alive.
At the end, Will is in Italy, researching into people-smuggling. He interviews the surviving brother. He learns that before the brother was put on the boat, boxes were taken off. He’d photographed the boxes. They contained tear gas – the final evidence Will needs.
Sometimes the switching between story lines is fast, almost paragraph by paragraph.
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