Investigative journalist John Bailey will risk everything to get to the truth so being kicked when he's down comes with the territory.
Having lost the one woman who was always there to pick him up, the former war correspondent is doing his best to turn his life around without her. He has a new job. He's given up the drink. He even has a dog.
But then Federal Police raid his home with a warrant granting them unprecedented powers to take anything they want - including all his electronic devices and passwords. When Bailey protests, they threaten to put him in a prison cell if he doesn't comply.
Someone wants to stop Bailey doing what he does best - exposing the truth. He has been investigating the rise of a global white supremacist group and suspects that a notorious neo-Nazi in the United States has been directing deadly racist attacks on Sydney's streets.
When a body of one of his key sources washes up on a nearby beach, it's clear Bailey and anyone helping him have become targets. Bailey reaches out for help from a reliable and ruthless old friend - CIA veteran, Ronnie Johnson - and the pair discover a deadly enemy emerging from the shadows.
An enemy who thought they were untouchable. Until now...
"Sharp, gritty, sophisticated. Ayliffe's criminal world is terrifyingly real" CANDICE FOX
John Bailey has a history of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The former war correspondent has been kidnapped and tortured - twice. Finally he's living something that resembles a normal life. But all that changes when a terrorist murders a woman in front of Bailey in London. The mastermind behind the attack is Mustafa al-Baghdadi - No.1 on the FBI's most wanted list - and the man who tortured Bailey in Fallujah a decade ago. Mustafa has a deadly axe to grind with Bailey. He taunts him with threats of more attacks in other cities, closer to home. Back in Sydney, the people who matter most to Bailey have become targets. Bailey turns to the only man who can help - ruthless CIA veteran Ronnie Johnson - to bring down the world's most deadly terrorist.
"As a correspondent, I lived this world. Tim Ayliffe has written it." STAN GRANT, writer and broadcaster
Battered war correspondent John Bailey is a man living on the edge. He's haunted by nightmares of being kidnapped and tortured in Iraq and he's drinking too much to drown the memories. As he battles to get his life back together, a story breaks that will force him back into the spotlight - and into the crosshairs of a deadly international player. When a beautiful prostitute is found murdered in her luxury Sydney apartment, Bailey is ordered to cover the story by The Journal's editor and his old friend, Gerald Summers, because he can't trust anyone else. One of the victim's clients, a key advisor to the Defence Minister, is chief suspect in her murder and he's on the run. When he contacts Bailey, claiming to have information that will bring down the government, the stakes become deadly. To complicate matters,the investigating police detective is the woman Bailey walked out on a decade ago. When a ruthless CIA fixer turns up, followed by a murderous Chinese agent hot on his trail, Bailey realises he has stumbled onto the story of a lifetime - one that he may not live to tell.
