On 12th October 1984, an IRA bomb, intended to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, rips the heart out of the Grand Hotel in Brighton. As part of the security response MI6 Station Chief Rome – Haydon Talbot – is tasked with foiling a Libyan plot to ship vast quantities of Semtex explosive to the IRA.
As the wheels of international espionage roll through Rome’s historic centre, Libyan and British agents are pitched against each other in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Haydon recruits British entrepreneur Charlie Lomax to front a sophisticated nuclear sting, with the aim of penetrating the highest levels of the Libyan security establishment. But his bosses will go to any lengths to score a political victory, even if it means sacrificing Haydon’s operation and agent in place.
As the IRA ship carrying the Semtex sails slowly north towards Ireland, Haydon faces conflicting pressures from above to interdict the shipment, whilst seeking to rescue Charlie from a brutal Tripoli jail.
