Sometimes the bait doesn't realise it's bait until the trap springs shut.

Traffic lights across central London turn green simultaneously. Seven dead. Then Heathrow air traffic control fails - two passenger jets nearly collide. Then Westminster receives an encrypted

Deliver Tom Marlowe to us in forty-eight hours, or we shut down London completely.

The Prime Minister brings Marlowe in to analyse the threat, but during the COBRA meeting, someone tries to assassinate him. Marlowe escapes, but security footage tells a different, deep-faked Marlowe orchestrated the attacks - and a kill-on-sight order goes out.

While hunted by his own government, Marlowe discovers he's not the only ransom demand. Brad Haynes in Washington. Helen Bonneville in Europe. Each one backed by infrastructure attacks. Each one a forty-eight-hour countdown.

They're not victims. They're Judas goats—bait to force every faction to reveal themselves by who they try to save or kill. The Cornerstone King is watching, cataloguing, preparing to slaughter everyone who moves.

Now Marlowe must stop the infrastructure attacks, prove his innocence, save all the goats, and expose the King's operation—all while hunted by every agency in Britain.

Some traps use violence. Others use trust. And the deadliest ones? They use you.

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December 28, 2026
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