Lieutenant Luis Hortez of the Guardia Civil at Vejer de la Frontera in southern Spain is confronted by a car with three dead Brits – Anthony Culshaw, his sister and his mother - each shot in the head, execution-style, along with a local motor cyclist, perhaps an unlucky witness. Another Brit – seemingly Culshaw's partner or girlfriend, Laura Field - is missing from the car.
Investigation in the UK pinpoints Anthony Culshaw as an IT security specialist who also has convictions for violence at G8 and G20 protests and those against global capitalism, and uncovers a computer linked to program with a series of very high security firewalls. Laura Field turns out to be a security specialist with a stock trading company. It seems the missing woman was using her identity … but who is she and what is she up to?
Something is going to happen soon, but WHAT is going to happen and WHEN? The investigation leads to Witchmoor Edge in Yorkshire and back to Spain and a deadline nears as a teenage hacker from the local college in Vejer and a Superintendent from the UK's Serious Fraud Office try to break through the firewall. It all ends as it began – in a violent shoot out.