Anthony Prince, head of PrinceSec, a firm providing high-tech security for the government and large private corporations, has died in a plane crash. On the same night, his firm has been the victim of a cyber-attack.
Responsible for Prince’s death was a hacker named Strider. Under his legal name, Scott Mitchell, working as an advisor for the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), he uses legitimate means to get the bad guys. As Strider, those means are less legal. Strider lives by The Code, a set of rules that he enforces without fail. Prince was a member of a pedophile network and so he had to die.
A link is found between a criminal hacker group, known as Black Flag, a national port authority and a power station in Newcastle, indicating that Black Flag’s intentions could pose a risk to national safety. All this makes Mitchell suspicious. The previous year a whole swathe of evidence against Black Flag disappeared from the NCCU files. Slowly piecing the evidence together, Mitchell realises that there is a mole in the Unit, a key Black Flag hacker nicknamed Brown Bear. None other than his boss, Sheila Davies. Working under his secret hacker identity as Strider, he decides to move quickly — and act outside the law.
Nightshade, a high-ranking member of Black Flag, goes to the scene of Brown Bear’s death. Who did this? He’s nervous — his carefully laid plans are now at risk. Meanwhile, Strider makes contact with the man who trained him up in the ways of hacking — The Salesman. To Strider’s absolute shock and dismay, The Salesman reveals that he is in charge of Black Flag, and that Nightshade is his second-in-command.
At the same time, Rebecca MacDonald of PrinceSec and NCCU Agent David Roche are investigating at the Drax Power Station. When evidence from the nearby Port of Tyne reveals that a cargo box arrives every week before disappearing for a few days, they realise they’re on to something. Roche, flush with excitement at his discovery, decides to investigate the warehouse linked to the Port. There they are kidnapped by a guard, drugged and held on the premises usually reserved for the children Black Flag are trafficking.
In the aftermath of a huge explosion at Drax Power Station all evidence lies firmly at the door of the National Cyber Crime Unit. Scott Mitchell knows that Black Flag must be to blame for the blow-up, but how can he and his NCCU colleagues prove it?
An email Roche sent the previous day would have led him and Rebecca to a warehouse in Newcastle. The NCCU decide to storm the place but on their arrival they find out that their move has been anticipated. Mitchell realises someone must have planted Roche’s car at the power station to make it look like he was responsible. Was it Nightshade? But why instigate a small-scale attack like that when there are much bigger fish to fry? Could it have been a decoy to move attention from what Black Flag were actually up to elsewhere?
Everyone at the NCCU is intent on finding out who exactly took David Roche’s car to Drax Power Station, and there’s hoping that will lead to the person who killed him. Two blond hairs found in the car are sent for analysis.
Fingerprints at the warehouse lead the investigation to Miguel, the guard. By a trace on his mobile phone the NCCU identify a new site where they believe Rebecca and the children are being kept. But all this is secondary to Mitchell, because, in an attempt to divert the attention from Black Flag, Nightshade has released his alter ego’s name — Strider — to the media, saying that he’s a rogue hacker responsible for the explosion. Will Mitchell be able to protect himself?
Team leader Franklin asks Mitchell to investigate Strider but Miller, a colleague with a grudge against Mitchell, steps in: he suspects Mitchell is in some way involved. Mitchell needs to find a way of shifting the evidence against Strider away from himself, and urgently. Someone will have to be the fall guy, and Mitchell knows exactly the person.
The new warehouse site is stormed — Miguel is shot but not killed in the struggle. He and other workers are arrested while the children and several adults linked up to support machines are saved. They’ve all recently had their kidneys removed — the scale of Black Flag’s criminal activity astounds everyone. Worryingly though, there is no sign of Rebecca. Where is she, and is she safe? Nightshade is livid at this turn of events — he knows Strider is to blame. How can he exact his revenge?
Meanwhile, Mitchell executes his plan. Disguising himself, he swaps out the two blond hairs for two others — Miller’s. Then he goes to the hospital where the guard, Miguel, is being kept. Made up to look like Miller, he administers a fatal dose of sodium thiopental. He also orchestrates it so that Miller is away from home without an alibi, receiving data from a ‘source’ that will make it look like he is Strider and was responsible for Prince’s and Davies’ deaths.
In a dark room, Rebecca, tied to a hospital bed and linked up to various machines, decides to risk escape one last time.