2017
EPISODE ONE Global resources are running low. UK electricity is being rationed. There's a curfew on the Internet. ATM's function intermittently. Supermarket checkouts are in chaos. Street Screen TV's carry news of crisis talks in London where the INTER GOVERNMENTAL ENERGY COMMISSION is trying to reach agreement about allocating Power fairly across all five Continents. But just as the Conference is about to start RANSOM is called out to an incident in GRANTHAM WOODS. There's a body. It's the key note speaker. An apparent suicide. So how come AIRCOM already there?
EPISODE TWO: THE MUJANNAH FILE SIR ANTHONY BROWNE sets out the agenda for the IGEC's SAVOY ACCORD. RANSOM discovers the 'body in the woods is DR DAVID MADDEN CEO of CHILDREN FOR LIFE who was also due to testify at a hearing on the misuse of NGO funds. Public donations had been diverted to fund covert ops abroad (like the e-sections in Libya) but were now being used in the UK as part of secret contingency plans drawn up by Home Secretary SASKIA BOAKES, HARPER and SECOND WAVE to deal with social implosion (THE MUJANNAH FILE. ) Meanwhile CAMERON ANDREWS - head of LEEWAY, a US Power Consortium - heads for London with a radical alternative.
EPISODE THREE: CLEAR THE LAND Head of AIRCOM ALEX MEERKOPF plots to scupper the IGEC talks by planting a computer virus in a power station in IRAN. RANSOM is devastated when BAINES the Pathologist working on the MADDEN case has gone missing. MALLONE - his DCS- hands RANSOM a letter instructing him to meet FIREX a group led by TAM LENNOX (originally to work on alternative energy supply now obliged to work as counter intelligence). CHERRY GOULD a journalist (and former lover) has got hold of a leaked copy of THE MUJANNAH FILE and tells RANSOM she is being followed by CERTO/SSU the privatised police. News also emerges that LEEWAY's CLEAR THE LAND scheme in West Africa is not all it seems.
EPISODE FOUR: DEAD LETTERS BEZAHD a young IRANIAN student arrives in SANGATTE as he tries to reach the UK with information from NAJAHA about AIRCOM's covert ops In HORMUZ. JESS, RANSOM's wayward young sister, is on VSO in the same area. OLLY, MADDEN's son delivers RANSOM a video of his father's proposed speech to the IGEC and a copy of OSIRUN a book outlining experiments with rare earth fusion in MALI. As the vote nears, protests gather around the conference. The WHITE MONKS appear - a Carmelite-style cult who believes the coming darkness is the will of God. BEZAHD contacts BAIDAQ a trusted member of the Iranian delegation. As he reads his information, AL-RASI a wheeler dealer in the delegation is attacked in his room in THE SAVOY.
EPISODE FIVE: SOME HYDRAS HEAD HARPER leader of SECOND WAVE - an extremist group inside the Government who plan to take over in a State of Emergency - has a been leading the call for the development of Fracking around Britain's Green Belt. He is forced to come clean that the company behind the scheme is LEEWAY. KARA (RANSOM's partner in FIREX) discovers more details of MUJANNAH. Making Energy Rationing work. The Social Viability Index, Disinformation strategies. White Paper on Containment Camps. ANDREWS tries to bribe BAIDAQ. In Linjah, NAJAHA have kidnapped JESS and her companions and are holding them hostage. They will be killed if the vote at the Conference goes the wrong way.
EPISODE SIX: EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN So which way will the world vote? 'There is no private pathway to survival' SIR ANTHONY BROWNE implores. With a decision imminent BAIDAQ disappears. CARTER from National Data Information Unit in DETROIT contacts FIREX to say suspect 'eco-terrorists' have arrived in London. RANSOM and KARA finally rescue BAIDAQ from LEEWAY security men with the help of the WHITE MONKS. He arrives back just in time to cast his crucial vote and the motion is carried (to set up an International Agreement on Energy). As the delegates applaud news comes through from LINJAH. A bomb has ripped through the power plant and destroyed most of the town. RANSOM arrives to see his sister's face on screen with the other hostages.
EPISODE SEVEN: THE TOKAMAKS OF CADARACHE In the wake of the IGEC Conference LENNOX flies to a secret meeting in SAMARKAND held by Private Energy suppliers under the auspices of several RUSSIAN oligarchs. RANSOM is sent to LINJAH to try to find out if his sister has survived. CHERRY follows MADDEN's notes on alternative energy and meets MAYRA SAKAROVA grand-daughter of the inventor of tokamaks at the research centre in CADARACHE. As the PM's health deteriorates SECOND WAVE and SASKIA BOAKES bring forward plans for a 'state within a state' equipped with new powers to control a nation gradually stripped of basic fuel and energy supplies.
PISODE EIGHT: THE HOUSE OF ABSOLUTES JESS has survived the bomb blast in Linjah but RANSOM discovers she has been taken to TURKMENISTAN by traffickers from KHIVA. Trouble breaks out at the fracking site in SURREY SANDS where PETER KIEFER (head of VINDICATA DEI militant wing of the WHITE MONKS) plans a personal crusade against those who destroy the land, horde energy and profiteer from fuel poverty. Meanwhile SIR ANTHONY BROWNE takes charge of the NGO funding Enquiry and BOAKES plots to shut down NEW VOICE the only 'opposition' newspaper left in Britain. MADDEN's rare earth project in MALI suddenly comes under attack. ANDREWS plans a meeting in the HOUSE OF ABSOLUTES with BENOIT head of CADARCHE to buy the patents to their breakthrough research. LENNOX discovers that MEERKOPF head of AIRCOM has been dealing with the organisers in SAMARKAND all along. 'Private control of energy' he argues 'needs a private military force'.
EPISODE NINE: THE TAMGAS of SAMARKAND ANDREWS meets with BENOIT who as a precaution has sent MAYRA SAKAROVA to SAMARKAND to value the tokamak research. She's followed by the earnest DR. DARNAK a colleague and member of the SIA group of scientists who feel all new energy research must be available to everyone. He passes MALLIANOV the encrypted data. JESS is brought to the Conference supposedly as part of the entertainment- followed by RANSOM and his partner from FIREX, KARA with news that something's wrong. ANDREWS has sent EMMS and WESTERGARTEN to monitor events but when rumours grow that the CADARCHE research is in the building all hell breaks lose. MAYRA kills DARNAK for what she perceives as his betrayal and is in turn seized by KUHZNETSOV and the RUSSIANS. KARA grabs MALLIANOV who she's been sent to rescue. RANSOM hunts down JESS only to find himself caught in a trap that's been carefully laid since he found the body in the woods. But a trap laid by who?
EPISODE TEN: SECURING FINANCE IN THE AGE OF UNREST RANSOM and KARA bring JESS home and unearth AIRCOM's role in destabilising the LINJAH power plant. Against a backdrop of Preppers, backyard wells and syphoned oil pipes, ANDREWS launches his post-CADARACHE plan to set up nuclear power in Highland Park DETROIT. His move to mothball oil wells comes under suspicion on Capitol Hill and his introduction of a STREET MILITIA to protect his investment breeds deep resentment. Even free traders begin to wonder if the nation's energy can be left in one man's hands. BOAKES meanwhile launches a means test for electricity linked to the electoral roll. KEIFER responds by launching an attack on those who use more fuel than they're entitled to. The IGEC Committee struggles to agree terms for 'Power' sharing and the NGO ENQUIRY finds the Government used charitable donations to fund covert ops in oil rich countries as a prelude to THE MUJANNAH FILE. Amidst the chaos the TAVISTOCK GROUP emerges, targeting SIR ANTHONY BROWNE with an offer he can't refuse.
EPISODE ELEVEN: PROMETHIUM AND CONCOCTION MEN Chastened by his failure in SAMARKAND, MEERKOPF meets with KUHZNETSOV to sell his scheme for a supra-national force to protect global energy supply. LENNOX is invited to DETROIT by PARKER RYAN from NDIU to help track down a group of eco-terrorists. Veteran broadcaster JACK RUBENS urges the nation to demand energy as a human right. Cocaine dealer LORD BURELL sees electricity as the world's most prized commodity and plots to get a piece of the action. Whilst RANSOM and KARA protect MALLIANOV, WICKHAM of RYE, of the WHITE MONKS, calls for a new moral crusade of Enlightenment and CHERRY fronts a press campaign against BOAKES' 'two-tier' energy plans. In Africa, Attacks on MADDEN's Rare Earth Lab by a mercenary force funded by private Chinese profiteers are thwarted by local CONCOTION MEN. LENNOX and NDIU agent RUBY JACKS find the head of ANDREWS PACKARD nuclear plant hanged. When they visit the site the ground subsides beneath them dragging them and all around them down into a network of oil pipes. Without electricity how can they possibly survive?
EPISODE TWELVE: THE STRATAL PROCLAMATION Washington can stand by no longer. Gov CLEARWATER and spokesman KARL BERNAYS launch the NATIONAL DEFENCE ALLIANCE to bring US energy under government control. CHERRY meets with her boss KELVIN COLLINS with evidence of a link between BOAKES and THE LEAGUE OF BRITAIN, a movement targeting alternative energy groups. LENNOX and KARA are finally rescued and with PARKER RYAN discover the subsidence was caused by a series of bombs detonated by agents provocateurs determined to bring LEEWAY down. ANDREWS is under more pressure when LORD BURRELL visits his mansion with a business proposition which soon becomes a threat. MALLIANOV seeks out SIR ANTHONY BROWNE and - as the man most likely to make the research universally available- gives him the CADARCHE code. MALLIANOV, however, fears for his life and RANSOM takes him to a safe house where they are hunted down by the GIP. Sacked from his job COLLINS is found in his garage by his daughter. FIREX is informed BAIDAQ's daughter NOUSHA has been abducted and despite BOAKES' efforts SIR ANTHONY replaces the late PM. Momentarily.