The CIA revelation that at least two of the Church Bombers were Australian had thrown him into the forefront of the world’s biggest international terrorism investigation, a geopolitical shitstorm that already had planet Earth on the brink of a world war. A clusterfuck that could cost him his job.

‘Who the fuck are they?’ the Director of ASIO, one of the few men in the world to know the Mexico bombers were Australian, had demanded. ‘How and why? Why are we hearing this from the CIA? Who are these blokes and why have I never heard of them? And what about the rest of them? Another nine? Fuck me. How could we not know about any of this? How could you not know about any of this? Just what the fuck is it that you have been doing for the last two years? For fuck’s sake. FUCK! I’m not going to cop a bullet for this. You’d better fuck off and find me some answers if you want to keep your job. FUCK! Get something, anything, before the Yanks get here. Don’t make us all look as fucking stupid as you.’

Clarke and his team, two of them now on the way up to join him in the conference room, had scrambled, pulling files, hitting the phones and writing reports. He was quite satisfied with what they had put together, all of it now in the files stacked neatly in front of him, meticulously in order. Starting a briefing with paper files was a time-honoured tradition at ASIO and had once been the way a whole investigation was handled. Although nowadays most of the info was stored digitally, people still tended to like old-school when it came to initial briefings. There was something more tangible about details when you were holding them in your hand.

One file contained complete and thorough histories of each of the dead Australian bombers: police records, court transcripts, school reports and employment histories, even their hobbies, political leanings and favourite foods. Clarke’s guys had conducted over a dozen phone interviews with associates of each man in under twenty-four hours.

A thicker file contained a comprehensive geopolitical study and profile of the unknown terror group. The extraordinary attempts taken to mask the identities of the attackers were believed to be part of a well-considered ploy to sow confusion and spread blame. The mastermind behind the movement wanted as wide a range of countries as possible to come under suspicion, so that the inevitable retaliatory attacks on countries known to harbour terrorists – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Cameroon and Malaysia – would spark further retaliation and, in turn, a global conflict.