December 1767. Alistair Douglas has been using the Decipherers a secret network of contacts in London to attempt to find two men implicated in a series of political murders in the mutinous American colonies. Rumours fly as anonymously printed attacks on the King & his ministers flow through the city. But frustratingly there are few leads. Douglas is therefore pleased when he is assigned to a new duty. He must travel to Paris & ensure the outlawed radical writer & politician John Wilkes returns to England -- the stipulation being that Wilkes must return of his own volition. It is soon clear there is a serious conspiracy afoot -- & John Wilkes is first on the list of suspects. But the Decipherers have reason to believe there is a highly placed intimate of the present government also involved.. .