John Birmingham: Without warning

Caitlin Monroe (aka Cathy Mercure): Echelon senior field agent posing as

international eco warrior and London-based political activist

‘Aunty’ Celia Wickstead: English member of The Sorry Committee

Maggie Leigh: American member of The Sorry Committee

Monique Duroc: French political activist, member of The Sorry Committee

Dr Stйphane Colbert: Groupe Hospitalier de la Pitiй-Salpкtriиre

Bilal Baumer (aka al Banna): Cell Master, al-Qaeda in Europe

Nicolas Sarkozy: French Minister of the Interior

Captain Marcel Rolland: 1er Rйgiment d’Infanterie

Bernard Lacan: Director, Action Division, DGSE

Wales Larrison: Echelon’s Paris controller

Monty Pearson: chief of staff, BBC Paris bureau

Noordim ul Haq: Indonesian-born Jemaah Islamiyah commander

James Kipper: chief engineer with Seattle City Council

Barney Tench: deputy chief engineer with Seattle City Council

Barbara Kipper: James’s wife, and mother of six-year-old Suzie

Heather Cosgrove: engineering intern at Seattle City Council

Marv Basco: sanitation engineer at Seattle City Council

Dave Chugg: water engineer at Seattle City Council

Rhonda Thiess: secretary to the chief engineer, Seattle City Council

Aaron Metz: Microsoft executive

Malcolm Vusevic: Constitutional Convention delegate from Spokane, WA

Brigadier General Tusk Musso: US Marine Corps lawyer, acting commander of

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Lieutenant Colonel George Stavros: aide to Musso, acting 2IC of Guantanamo Bay

Naval Base

Ensign April Oschin: USN sysop, Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Major Eladio Nuсez: Cuban Army officer

Lieutenant Jenny Kwan: US Marine Corps, Incident Response Unit

Sergeant Guilio Gutteres: US Marine Corps, Incident Response Unit

Captain Vincente Бlvarez: Cuban Army officer

Professor Norman Griffiths: US National Laboratory

Lieutenant Dan McCurry: US Navy

Chief Petty Officer Strom Lundquist: US Coast Guard

Sergeant Les Carlyon: US Marine Corps

General Alano Salas: Venezuelan Marine Infantry commander

Pete Holder: Australian-born skipper of the Diamantina

Mr Lee: first mate on the Diamantina

Julianne Balwyn: daughter of English nobility, Diamantina crew member

Fifi Lamont: ship’s cook on the Diamantina

Sergeant Narayan Shah: formerly of Her Majesty’s Royal Gurkha Regiment

Corporal Birendra: formerly of Her Majesty’s Royal Gurkha Regiment

Private Thapa: formerly of Her Majesty’s Royal Gurkha Regiment

Private Subba: formerly of Her Majesty’s Royal Gurkha Regiment

Private Sharma: formerly of Her Majesty’s Royal Gurkha Regiment

Miguel Pieraro: contracted beef hauler for McDonald’s

Rhino Ross: former CPO, United States Coast Guard

Dietmar Dietz: navigator

Henry Cesky: Brooklyn-based construction magnate

Larry Zood: internet pornographer

Phoebe St John: survivor, heiress, from Boston

Jason St John: survivor, heir, from Boston

Denby Moorhouse: Basel-based merchant banker

Marc Unwin: oil broker

Lars Havel: Norwegian ship’s mate

Mariela Pieraro: Miguel’s wife

Pankesh Daxa: Sri Lankan chief engineer, Aussie Rules

Rohan van der Meuwe: Dutch ship’s engineer, Aussie Rules

Urvan Plost: Dutch ship’s engineer, Aussie Rules

Bret Melton: former US Ranger, veteran Army Times foreign correspondent

Sayad al Mirsaad: Jordanian journalist with Al Jazeera news agency

Captain Christian Lohberger: US 7th Cavalry

Lieutenant Leo Euler: US 7th Cavalry

Sergeant-Major Bo Jaanson: US 7th Cavalry

Specialist Vincent Alcibiades: US 7th Cavalry

Corporal Tucson Shetty: US 7th Cavalry

Sergeant Fryderyk Milosz: Polish GROM squad leader

Colonel Rudi Molenz: Israeli Air Force pilot

Admiral James Ritchie: US Navy

Captain Andrew McKinney: PA to Admiral Ritchie

Colonel Brian Maccomb: US Army’s 500th Military Intelligence Brigade

Jed Culver: Louisianan attorney

Commander Damon Oakshott: US Navy aide to Admiral Ritchie

Asher Warat: Israel’s envoy to the United States

Governor Linda Lingle: Republican senator, Governor of Hawaii

Lieutenant General Stephen Francis Murphy: Commander, US Army, 25th Infantry

Division

General Tommy Franks: Commander of the United States Central Command

General JL Jones: Commander of the United States European Command

Lieutenant Colonel Susan Pileggi: Acting Commander, SOUTHCOM

General Jackson Blackstone: US Army, Commander, Fort Lewis

Major Ty McCutcheon: US Air Force, aide to General Blackstone

HOSPITAL, PARIS

The killer awoke, surrounded by strangers. An IV line dripped clear fluid through a long, thick needle punched into the back of her right hand. Surgical tape held the silver spike in place and tugged at the fine blonde hairs growing there. The strangers – all women, she thought dully – leaned in, their faces knotted with anxiety, apparently for her. But she stared instead at her hands as they lay in her lap on a thin brown blanket. They looked strong, even masculine. She turned them over, examining them. The nails were cut short. Calluses disfigured her knuckles, the heels of both palms, and the sides of her hands, from the base of both little fingers down to her wrists. The more she stared, the more unsettled she became. Like the women gathered around her bed, those hands were completely alien to her. She had no idea who she was.

‘Cathy? Are you all right?’

‘Nurse!’ somebody called out.

The strangers, three of them, seemed to launch themselves at her bed. She felt herself tense up, but they simply wanted to comfort her.

‘Docteur! Elle s’est rйveillйe…’

She felt soft hands patting her down, stroking her like one might comfort a child who’s suffered a bad fright. Cathy – that wasn’t her name, was it? – Cathy tried not to panic or to show how much she didn’t want any of these women touching her. They looked weird, not the sort of people she’d want as friends. And then, she remembered. They weren’t her friends. They were her mission. And her name wasn’t Cathy. It was Caitlin.

The women were dressed in cheap clothing, layered for warmth. Falling back into the pillows, recovering from an uncontrolled moment of vertigo into which she had fallen, Caitlin Monroe composed herself. She was in a hospital bed, in a private room, and in spite of the apparent poverty of her ‘friends’, the room was expensively fitted out. The youngest of the women wore a brown suede jacket, frayed at the cuffs and elbows and festooned with colourful protest buttons. A stylised white bird. A rainbow. A collection of slogans: Halliburton Watch, Who would Jesus bomb? and Resistance is fertile.

Caitlin took a sip of water from a squeeze bottle by the bed.

‘I’m sorry,’ she croaked. ‘What happened to me?’

She received a pat on the leg from an older, red-haired woman wearing a white tee-shirt over some sort of lumpy handmade jumper. Celia. ‘Aunty’ Celia, although she wasn’t related to anyone in the room. Aunty Celia had very obviously chosen this strange ensemble to show off the writing on her shirt, which read: If you are not outraged you are not paying attention.