In 1998 the British Government issued a public warning to all ports and airports of a possible terrorist threat. It was withdrawn almost as quickly as it was issued, but it was enough to form a starting point for Murray Davies's second block-busting novel after The Drumbeat of Jimmy Sands. Davies is himself a famed investigative journalist and he has built a stunning scenario in which an Iraqi terrorist - himself under threat of a terrifying reprisal from Sadam Hussein - attempts to bring in to the UK a flask of almost unimaginably destructive bacteria. Set against the threat is a small team of experts and soldiers and spooks in Whitehall. But even here somebody seems to be leaking information.