When a routine dead-drop in a quiet London suburb ends with a brutally assassinated source and a high-speed chase, MI6 agent Jack Fenwick knows the mission is anything but ordinary. The prize is a single, encrypted data stick, the contents of which are a mystery his own agency seems desperate to conceal. Plunged into a conspiracy that reaches the highest echelons of the British government, Fenwick is disavowed, a ghost hunted by his own people and a ruthless team of mercenaries led by a phantom from his past.

His only ally is Anya Sharma, a disgraced investigative journalist with a score to settle against the very establishment that burned her. Together, they unravel a plot of breathtaking audacity: a plan to use a secret kill switch embedded in the nation's critical infrastructure to manufacture a crisis and seize power. The mastermind is Sir Julian Croft, the charismatic and powerful Home Secretary, a man poised to become the nation's saviour, even if he has to destroy it first.

From the rain-slicked streets of London to the desolate moors of the north, Fenwick and Anya race against time to expose the truth. But with every secret they uncover, the danger intensifies. To stop a silent coup that threatens to plunge the UK into a new dark age, Fenwick must infiltrate a secure Whitehall bunker during a national emergency drill and confront the traitors at the heart of the state. In a world of shadows and lies, the line between patriot and traitor is fatally blurred, and the price of victory may be higher than he can afford to pay.