A British plane crashes in America, sparking off a national emergency and a diplomatic crisis.

It emerges the incident was the work of a British suicide bomber. With the 'special relationship' between the UK and the US under threat, the British Ambassador, Sir Mark Brydon, manoeuvres American Secretary of Defense, Lynne Warner, into a public show of solidarity. But behind the scenes, tension mounts between the pair.

The situation worsens when the Governor of Virginia passes emergency legislation allowing the Virginia National Guard to apprehend and imprison all British Asians in the State.

The first casualties of the policy are a young British Asian couple, killed while trying to get over the state line from Virginia to Maryland. When Mark visits the scene he knows immediately his job has just become ten times harder.

Back at the embassy, the Ambassador's right hand man, Nicholas Brocklehurst, accesses surveillance material. It seems to suggest a link between the father of Mark's friend Caroline Hanley and an order for trigger switches. Surely a connection to the bomb?

Elsewhere, in the dead of night, a training exercise takes place on a secure military site in Virginia. Live ammunition is used, and one of the men is killed. Unmoved, the leader of the group ensures that the body won't be identified, before dumping it into a nearby river. The remains are discovered by a civilian the following day.

In Florida, Jane Lavery, a human rights lawyer on attachment to the Embassy meets her client Luke Gardner, a British citizen on Florida's Death Row. He maintains his innocence, but unless his appeal is upheld, he will be executed. Later, Luke sees the face of the plane bomber and has a strong emotional and physical reaction. What could be their connection?

 

 

The British Embassy in Washington is besieged by British nationals seeking sanctuary from the Governor of Virginia's draconian policy to round up all British Muslims in the state.

Ambassador Mark Brydon is happy to offer it. But as his level-headed deputy Phil Lonsdale reminds him, there's a bigger picture. Priority must be to get the policy reversed. Mark thinks it through – it's a high risk strategy but Chair of the Security Committee Madeleine Cohen might be open to persuasion. His meeting with her is tough to read – has he helped British citizens or made things worse?

Counsellor for External Affairs Nicholas Brocklehurst is pursuing separate business. There's evidence to suggest that the unidentifiable body washed up in a creek in Virginia might have been a British soldier. But who would have gone to the trouble of shooting his face off? Nicholas agrees to help FBI agent George Blake to investigate the case.

While visiting Caroline Hanley's house for a dinner party, Mark's ambushed by Caroline, Gordon Adair (CEO of Armitage Corp, a major investor in Tyrgyztan) and James Sinclair (former ambassador to Tyrgyztan and the diplomatic untouchable Mark is forbidden contact with). The regime in Tyrgyztan is corrupt. They are pushing for change and want Mark on board. He dismisses the offer. ‘I am a servant of the British Government – we support the existing regime’, but later he remembers his own time in Tyrgyztan and his certainties begin to waver.

With fresh information about Private Military Contractors in his hand, Nicholas leaves Washington for London. There, he expertly breaks into Anthony Hanley's flat and begins searching it. But is he on Hanley's side or against him?

In Florida, prisoner Luke's appeal is denied and his death warrant signed. Human rights lawyer Jane Lavery sees one last chance. She can plead his case at the Pardons Board. When the shaky evidence that convicted him is exposed they must surely admit clemency?

Meanwhile Gary Pritchard is in business again. With his crew of mercenaries he's launching an operation that involves 10 canisters of poison gas and a Boeing 737. The operation fails when the airfield is raided by the FBI and all are taken into custody.

In the middle of the night, Mark's roused by a phone call. It's good news in one way – a coup has been foiled. Bad news for the Embassy though when it emerges that the mercenaries were British.

 

Charles Macintyre is threatening to file an official complaint about the FBI's handling of his 'entirely legitimate business operation'. He then meets with his co-conspirator - Christopher Styles. Later Macintyre flies a kite with Nicholas Brocklehurst.

Meanwhile, Mark spins a proposition to Carl Garcia. Support for the rogue regime in Tyrgyztan is becoming untenable. The UK/US should consider an approach to the democratic opposition. Mark's in a position to make it happen...

He rings James Sinclair to say he'll broker Eshan's visit. But James has gone awol. He eventually finds James in a bar. As Mark manhandles his old friend out into the street a camera flashes. Losing patience he walks away and James reels back into the bar to take comfort with a hooker.

Later in the evening, Macintyre steps out of the shadows, kills the hooker with cold precision and presses the murder weapon into James' nerveless fingers.

Mark and Nicholas Brocklehurst visit the Pentagon to sell their proposition to Lynne Warner. Mark can get Eshan Borisvitch to Washington for secret exploratory talks. Tyrgyztan's President Usman need never know. After a moment's hesitation Warner nods.

The FBI bust is top of the news agenda. Luke Gardner's mum Jackie recognises one of the players - Gary Pritchard, Luke's old pal from his army days. In his cell Luke's being measured for the suit he will wear to his execution when he sees the same item on the news.

Reading the papers, Macintyre sees his men on the front page, then a story about Luke losing his death row appeal. As he reads the two stories, a connection is made which leads his thoughts to the Governor of Florida. Do they have any leverage? Can they lean on him if required?

Jane speaks for Luke at the Pardons board. It's going well, and the Board look like they might be inclined to clemency. But as they retire to deliberate, the Prison Warden gets a call from the Governor's office. No clemency. Luke will die tomorrow.

Jane's gutted, but perhaps the Ambassador will succeed where she failed. Mark agrees to go to Florida in person to speak to the governor. But Nicholas has a distinct air of menace about him as he puts pressure on Jane to say nothing to the Ambassador of Luke's connection with Pritchard. Whose side is Nicholas on?

Luke finally takes his life into his own hands. He rings Macintyre and applies pressure in an attempt to get off Death Row. His hopes are extinguished when Macintyre ends the call. Arriving in Florida to plead Luke's case, Mark gets short shrift from the Governor. He's left with the uneasy feeling that someone wants Luke dead and there's nothing he can do. In silence and shame Mark and Jane watch Luke die.

Afterwards, unable to cut through the chill of what they have seen, they make love in a cheap motel.

Charles Macintyre is pleased. Everything is coming together. One last loose end to tie. This time it's Gary Pritchard's turn. Dead men tell no tales

Following Luke Gardner's death, the letter he left for Jane Lavery takes her to Al Rivero's house in search of Luke's 'kit'. After a scary moment when a nervous Al pulls a gun on her Jane receives the package Luke sent her for – the package that will explain everything.

Later in her motel room she views rough, handheld footage of a massacre in Tyrgyztan eight years ago. She recognises Gary Pritchard, who murders a young woman in a Tyrgyztani village and sees Luke preventing him from murdering her baby too. Though Jane has no way of knowing it the young woman is Eshan Borisvitch's sister Saida – James Sinclair's wife and Mark Brydon's last lover. More is to come. The second DV shows Luke coaching Hassan Khan, the Washington plane bomber, in his new identity.

900 miles away in Washington, Mark picks up the threads of a delicate diplomatic manoeuvre. In darkness, surrounded by security, he meets Eshan Borisvitch, the leader of the democratic opposition in Tyrgyztan. It's clear that the two men have history.

Mark stumbles through an apology for wrongs done a decade before. He was the international envoy responsible for smoothing President Usman's path to power, turning a blind eye to human rights abuses during Usman's so-called democratic election, and indirectly creating the conditions that led to Eshan's sister's death.

As Mark hosts a lunch to broker talks between Eshan and Lynne Warner, Jane arrives with Luke's kit. In a secure room she shows Nicholas Brocklehurst the DVs and a copy of a contract between CMC and Armitage linking Armitage directly to the massacre. The signature on the contract is 'Lynne Warner', CEO of Armitage in 1999, now sitting upstairs talking to the Tyrgyztani opposition leader in exile.

Next morning the secrecy surrounding Eshan's visit is blown open when a picture appears in a morning tabloid of Mark and James staggering out of a bar, accompanied by speculation that their row had something to do with Eshan's arrival in Washington.

The fallout is immediate. Usman denounces his traitorous allies. Mark's Deputy Phil reacts with fury: what made Mark think he could defy diplomatic gravity? Warner is humiliated. Eshan reacts at once. Usman will take his revenge on the Tyrgyztani people. He must leave straight away and attempt to limit the damage.

But Mark takes a cooler view. Eshan should stay. This might play in their favour. The US can't possibly continue its relationship with Usman after this. His hunch is proved correct when Warner calls and invites Mark and Eshan to the Pentagon to talk.

Hope turns to despair when Eshan is discovered to have left the Embassy without security to meet James and Azzam. Mark has to find him. They're due at the Pentagon in an hour and with the tide in their favour they don't want to mess Warner around.

Mark sets off to look for Eshan. Nicholas follows his progress by means of the tracker dot he's placed in his fountain pen. Mark arrives at Rock Creek Park to see Eshan, James and Azzam in the middle distance. As he raises his hand to hail them a sniper's shot rings out and Eshan falls to the ground. Mark races over and cradles the dying man.

After identifying Eshan's body at the Washington morgue and sharing a moment of grief with Caroline and Gordon, his co-sponsors of Tyrgyztani regime change, Mark returns to the Embassy. The scent of disaster is about him and Phil, his deputy at the Embassy is moving in for the kill. Mark needs Nicholas, but he's nowhere to be found.

Warner seizes the moment to step up the rhetoric for war. And in Undersecretary for Defense Christopher Styles' elegant apartment Nicholas burns Luke's tape in front of his lover's shocked gaze. Knowing that he's sailing close to the wind Christopher reacts to close down the only witness who can draw the lines together, by ordering a hit on Jane Lavery.

Defense Secretary Warner is well and truly on the warpath - on her way to the UN to make the case for regime change in Tyrgyztan. If they can get a resolution there will be US planes in Central Asia by nightfall.

Mark meanwhile is in a dark place. Eshan has been murdered. Downing Street are recalling him to London. Just as it seems that his career is over a lifeline is thrown from an unexpected place. Defense Secretary Warner calls to say that the White House would be unhappy to see Mark Brydon removed from office. Mark's deputy Phil Lonsdale is forced to stand by his boss.

Restored to duty Mark attends a function at a downtown hotel then, suspecting he's being bugged, slips away to meet James Sinclair. James is shattered and frightened. Eshan's death has been apocalyptic for him. He realises that he has been a pawn in a terrifying game and stresses to Mark that the people behind this will stop at nothing.

Mark tries to persuade him to stay at the Embassy - diplomatic immunity will protect him - but James takes advantage of a diversion to slip away, leaving Mark standing in Union Station with James's son Azzam, no sign of James anywhere.

As soon as he can Mark contacts the one man he trusts in the US Administration, National Security Adviser Carl Garcia. He has a hypothesis: Defense Secretary Warner is behind Eshan's death, a necessary sacrifice to enable her to start a war. Carl doesn't deny that it's possible.

There aren't too many people for Mark to trust now. But he does trust Jane Lavery so when she invites him to join her in a Washington hotel he accepts. They make love for the second time and both of them are grateful for the comfort. Mark begins to open up, telling Jane of his losses, not just James and Eshan, but Saida - the woman who ten years ago brought them all together. Jane is startled - she's heard that name before. She puts two and two together and realises that the woman Mark loved is the woman she saw murdered in Luke's video.

Immediately she shares what she knows and Mark realises they are both in danger. He looks out of the window. The familiar figure of Vinnie Swain, neatly suited, in a black Mercedes - the killer who has dispatched so many others over the last two weeks - is parked up at the other side of the road. This is the hit that Christopher ordered.

Mark smuggles Jane out of the hotel and straight into a car chase. They shake off their pursuer and go to the airport. Jane should leave the country. It isn't safe here. After delivering her to the check-in desk for the flight to London, Mark heads for Nicholas's apartment. All that's happened over the last two weeks - the leaks, the buggings, the secrets - they have a spy's fingerprints all over them, and Nicholas is MI6's man in the British Embassy.

The minute Nicholas opens the door Mark hits him. Finally there's honesty between the two men and it becomes clear that Nicholas has been watching Mark's back all along, trying to derail the express train to war while keeping his Ambassador clean. Now Nicholas supplies a missing part of the puzzle. Warner hasn't had enough evidence to go to war against Usman until now. Since the plane went down Nicholas has been on the trail of the triggered spark gap switches that Anthony Hanley drew to his attention.

If it was proved that these essential components of a nuclear warhead had been ordered by Usman the US would be able to make a case for war. Nicholas suspects that Usman is innocent of the charge but that a Pentagon Black Op run by Warner and Styles will have ensured a paper trail that leads all the way back to him. What he needs to do to keep it all tied down is find the missing switches.

As the two men pool their knowledge Caroline Hanley and Gordon Adair are in a Boston customs shed looking without understanding at a consignment of triggered spark gap switches addressed to Usman from Hanley International. Warner has achieved her resolution.

As a sober end to a sober day, James Sinclair's body turns up in the Potomac. And Mark returns to the Residence to tell his son.

Jane meanwhile has defied her instructions and taken a flight to Tampa where she has stashed copies of Luke's incendiary DVs . Unfortunately Vinnie Swain knows she's there and is on a mission to eliminate her. A professional kidnap, bundled into a waiting car, and it looks like Jane can be silenced just like everyone else, but Jane isn't going to go down without a fight. Taking advantage of a momentary lapse in the driver's concentration she kicks out, the car crashes. At least if she goes she'll go on her own terms

Warner's ready to put troops on the ground in Tyrgyztan. Her adviser, Carl urges patience and caution and all but accuses her of profiteering if her husband still has shares in Armitage.

At the Pentagon events are catching up with Warner's right hand man Christopher Styles. George Blake has been doggedly piecing together the shards of evidence from all the apparently unrelated stories. She's close to something now. One of the men in the car crash with Jane carried Defense Intelligence department ID. What does Christopher know about Vinnie Swain?

Mark's on the phone to Downing Street putting on record that he believes the UK and the US are being manipulated into war. He later receives the news that Jane Lavery is in intensive care after a car crash in Tampa that killed two of her companions and seriously injured a third. Mark's shocked - what was she doing in Tampa? And who was she with? He leaves his meeting without hesitation - but Nicholas stops him. 'Not this time. Don't go off piste again. She's OK. We have a job to do here.' Mark concedes but not before putting the hospital on suicide alert on Jane's behalf. She will have a 24-hour guard. Even as he puts the phone down a masked killer in scrubs enters the intensive care unit. But this time it's not Jane they're after but the cold blooded young killer Vinnie Swain. This is an end that will not be left untied.

With Jane looked after, Mark puts together a posse to do the legwork he can't do. He sends Matthew Weiss of the Washington Press to go to Tampa to find out who was in the car with Jane?; who could have put pressure on the Governor of Florida to ensure Luke's death; and how are the two things connected?

Then he goes on to Caroline Hanley and George Blake and urges them to keep up their investigations and share with him anything they uncover.

As the rhetoric speeds towards war George's investigations take her to Charles Macintyre's office where she finds the knife used to kill the hooker and implicate James Sinclair.

From Tampa Mark receives Jane's copy of Luke's DV and finally sees what happened to Saida. All the evidence points to one thing. Seven years ago when she was CEO of Armitage, Lynne Warner ordered a massacre designed to eliminate the democratic opposition in Tyrgyztan. This is big. This is the kind of thing that could bring down an administration on start a war. But something about it feels wrong to Mark. Warner's a straight-talking girl. This Machiavellian plot isn't her style.

As the great and good gather at the British Embassy for a round table discussion on post-regime change Tyrgyztan, Mark lays his trap. They're bugging his office? He'll give them something to listen to. With the guests waiting outside he takes Warner into the library and confronts her with what he knows. Slowly the two realise how they've been played and then Warner reveals that the man in charge of CMC's ventures in Central Asia in 1999 was … Caroline Hanley's boyfriend, co-sponsor with Mark of Eshan's visit to Washington, Gordon Adair.

In Tampa Matthew Weiss turns up the final piece of the puzzle. Armitage is about to pour millions of dollars and thousands of jobs into Florida when it opens offices in Orange County. Now they know who leant on the governor, who needed to make the last witness of the Bukek massacre disappear - Armitage CEO Gordon Adair.

Caroline wrenches the last piece of evidence from her father's laptop. The man who ordered 125 triggered spark gap switches to be sent to Tyrgyztan was Gordon Adair.

The end game plays. Warner sacks Christopher Styles who goes home to his apartment and takes an overdose. Nicholas, anticipating that Macintyre won't want any loose ends arrives at Styles's department and waits for Macintyre to turn up. When he does Nicholas shoots him but is too late to save Christopher. At Armitage HQ Caroline confronts Adair and Mark arrives in time to hear him crow that there's nothing anyone can do. Armitage keeps the US running. Who's going to send him down?

Washington wakes to Matthew Weiss's exclusive linking Gordon Adair to the death of an innocent man on Death Row and the many innocent victims of the 1999 massacre in Tyrgyztan. Adair will have a case to answer after all.

And at the Pentagon Mark and Warner stand eyeball to eyeball for the last time. With a once in a lifetime opportunity to rid the world of a dangerous man Mark doesn't hesitate. 'This war is illegal, Lynne. Stand the planes down.'