Suffolk, UK 1980
Mike Harding is a former British Soldier due to be discharged after 22 years' service. Keen to retain his skills, the Ministry of Defence offers him an opportunity to become a deniable asset for MI13, an obscure department hidden within the Ministry of Defence. Harding readily accepts the offer but before starting in his new post with MI13 he spends a period of leave camping out in a Suffolk forest close to an American airbase. He is about to settle down for the night when an American aircraft with an engine problem flies low overhead. So low that it clips the tree tops. Something heavy falls through the forest canopy. Thinking the aircraft has crashed, Harding goes to investigate. What he finds half buried in the forest floor is a weapon constrained by parachute cords snagged in the trees. Fluid is leaking from the weapon's fractured casing. Harding immediately recognises the weapon to be an illegal chemical weapon banned by international treaty. He is aware that should it become known the US Air Force is flying aircraft armed with illegal chemical weapons over eastern England there would be uproar. The media would be on it like a riash and the UK government would be furious. Harding quickly photographs the weapon then leaves the site moments before a USAF Rescue and Recovery Squadron arrive to remove the weapon and sanitise the site. Based on intelligence received from the airbase, an executive order is issued by the Pentagon. The order states whoever got there before the ARRS had cleared the area must be found and terminated. The the base commander is ordered to initiate a cover story claiming a UFO landed in the forest. Will Harding manage to escape capture or will he be caught and will the media believe the cover story? The race is on....