The Devil's Work
Dominic Adler

Cal Winter, Iraq veteran and reluctant assassin, serves an underground organisation known only as The Firm.

Summoned to London for an urgent briefing, he is waylaid by MI6 trouble-shooter Marcus. MI6 have hired The Firm to rescue an agent held in a high-security African prison. And when he discovers the operation is threatened by a mole working for Chinese intelligence, Marcus orders Cal to unmask and eliminate the traitor.

In London Cal meets MI6 officer Juliet Easter and deniable asset Tom Dancer, a former officer in Cal’s old regiment. The hostage, security contractor Mel Murray, is held in Zambute, a failing East African state propped up by Beijing. Murray was working covertly for MI6 to disrupt Chinese politicking in the region: if he reveals MI6’s plan under torture, British rapprochement with China might falter, with disastrous political and economic consequences.

Cal’s team of mercenaries, battle-hardened from the Wars on Terror, fly to Kenya to prepare for a high-risk hostage rescue. As the clock counts down towards the assault, Cal discovers another game being played inside the MI6 team: any one of the four agents has a possible motive for betrayal. With the clock ticking, Cal finds himself running a counter-espionage operation in the field, spying on spies.

When the rescue operation is compromised by Chinese Special Forces, Cal’s team goes on the run. Cal fights a bloody, rolling battle across the war-torn wasteland to complete his mission, unmask the traitor and get out alive.

He discovers Zambute is an unforgiving place, a killing zone ruled by terrorism, dictatorship and greed. And as he gets closer to identifying the traitor, Cal finds himself under threat from The Firm itself as MI6’s operation implodes. A dirty endgame of betrayal and murder is laid bare, played out between corrupt spies, mercenaries and warlords…