'Why have the English decided to send a war reporter to Ningxia? Could they be expecting some kind of social upheaval we had not anticipated?' that had been the mission defining statement given to Cai-Chun -li by her personal mentor, General Guo. Two days ago she'd know the answer: coincidence; just a drunken hack tasked with producing eye-candy for some second rate TV channel, approaching the end of his career. Both Brough and Carstairs had registered a mild 'beep' on China's intelligence radar. Both had passports plastered with entry visas into conflict zones. They'd been processed, noted and the Ningxia Wai-ban alerted to their presence ... Now with Brough heading for certain death in the desert, and some crazy Propaganda kid trying to kill her, Chun-li was having to revise the initial sit-rep.