Charlie Finch is a divorced, Singapore-based stringer for a British newspaper, who is struggling to make enough money to meet his alimony payments and provide the financial incentive required to persuade a Chinese bar girl to live with him. In order to sell a story to his newspaper about the arrest of terrorists by the Singapore authorities, he embroiders it with fabricated details. They point to the possibility of a strike against world leaders at a forthcoming APEC conference in Kuala Lumpur by the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, an affiliate of al-Qaeda,.
To Charlie’s delight, his newspaper accepts the article for publication, splashing it on the front page as a major news item. However, forsaking his journalistic principles for monetary gain has fraught consequences.
At first his false story produces a bonus when British and American intelligence agents separately ask him to secure further details from his fictitious Malaysian informant in exchange for substantial cash payments. But he is kidnapped and taken on a wild ride through Malaysia by two ruthless henchmen and a burqa-clad woman to meet the emir, or leader, of Jemaah Islamiah. The emir thinks someone has disclosed to Charlie his plans for an attack on the APEC conference and wants to know who it is.
Charlie soon finds himself ensnared in the terrifying world of Jemaah Islamiah – hunted by police, marked for death by a crazed terrorist and seemingly helpless to save the lives of world leaders on the emir’s hit list.
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