John Anselm is a former Beirut hostage, a war correspondent who went to one war too many. A burnt-out case, he lives in Hamburg, working for a semi-legal, near-broke surveillance firm and trying to come to terms with his past. Then into his life comes Con Niemand, ex-mercenary and professional survivor. Niemand has had the unluckiest break of his life ? he has stumbled across evidence of a terrible secret and now he's on the run, the focus of a relentless high-tech manhunt across England to the remote Welsh mountains. Against his will, Anselm is plunged into a world of violence, betrayal and death. He must break out of his anesthetized life and pit himself against forces that he does not understand, forces determined to rebury a secret that can destroy reputations and lives across the globe.