From his temporary headquarters on Westmarsh Airfield, DCS Cradock begins the huge task of working out how the great gold bullion robbery was executed. Who should be better placed to help him than the flight controller on duty at the time?

Has the pursuit of the gold bullion thieves really put Cradock in blinkers? One thing is certain: the shot that blew up the police car will go on to destroy the mind and the body that fired it.

Barry Porter is a second-rate conman - but even he has his dreams. The money he gets for mimicking the police wireless operator in the great bullion robbery almost turns those dreams into reality. But not quite... never quite. His own nature and Cradock see to that.

Thirty thousand pounds seems a lot to pay for a prison escape - even for a gold robber - and the criminal fraternity aren't always as nice to each other as people think. The jackals, always waiting in the shadows, are useful enough while they stick to scavenging; it's when they get greedy that they become troublesome... then they have to be dealt with.

Peter Conroy, the bent security driver in the robbery, flees to Austria where the police can't touch him, leaving his beautiful wife behind to be torn apart by the police, press and her own doubts and disillusions. She faces the terrible decision that must be taken at some time or other by every criminal's wife: shall she give her husband away or cover him up?

Thommy Thomas is on the trail of the getaway pilot who flew the gold out of Britain in a Bristol Moth. After several months, his investigations are beginning to pay off...

Cradock wades deeper and deeper into the slimy, devious depths of the underworld in search of the gold robbers, driven on only by his frustration and sense of failure. He is reminded in more ways than one that he is on his own, and that no-one is indispensable...

Harold Oscroft is a brilliant accountant, and a paymaster to the robbers. He wants nothing to do with their violence, and is frightened when it enters his own safe, suburban family life. Cradock believes that, through Oscroft, he may have got sight of his real quarry.

An ex-paratrooper turned mercenary attempts to smuggle a girl and her baby out of the country. But what really interests Cradock is the man's connection with the bullion robbery.

Cradock finds gold - and the man who the world believes is the brains behind the heist. 'Cradock solves gold robbery'; 'Mr. Big arrested in Paris?' blare the headlines, and Cradock returns in a blaze of glory. But he knows all too well that there's someone bigger at liberty - much bigger.

As Cradock gets closer to the heart of the robbery, he is leaned on by powerful men far above him. The message is clear; but he has come too far to give up now. Gang leader Nechros swallows Cradock's bait, but not the hook, as the hunter heads for the countryside and more trouble.

In spite of many warnings from above, Cradock advances into deadly territory in his pursuit of the bullion bigwig.