Synopsis
Operation Pale Tiger
What is OPERATION PALE TIGER?
Is it a legend? A cold war myth? Or something horribly real?
When an American and a Chinese warship collide in the South China Sea the world holds its breath. Was it an accident? Or is this the prelude to Operation Pale Tiger? A long-rumoured Chinese plot to bring America to its knees…
As the question hangs, the pieces on the board begin to move…
A leading hedge fund manager rumoured to have links to the Chinese Government suddenly flies to Hong Kong. British Intelligence are onto him – are they the hunters or the hunted?
An analyst at the same hedge fund is found dead in London – but hidden deep within the building lies something far more frightening.
In Washington, a hit man receives instructions. Who are these figures, pulling the strings, close to the very centre of power?
And what of the rumours of a huge Fentanyl facility deep in the Colombian jungle?
As accusations are traded and Chinese and American war fleets steam towards The Taiwan Strait time is running out…
Detective Anne Perry and MI6 agent Emma Wilson must now risk it all to uncover the truth about OPERATION PALE TIGER – before the world tears itself apart.
How close are America and China to war?
What really drives big global events? Politicians? Or forces at the dark heart of the financial markets?
Can we ever really control AI?
Some of the fiercely topical questions posed in Mike Harrison’s gripping new thriller OPERATION PALE TIGER.
‘The story opens,’ Harrison recounts, ‘when an American and a Chinese warship collide in a typhoon in the disputed South China Sea. My novel is fiction, of course, but this could so easily be tomorrow’s headline. In fact, the inspiration for this scene came from reading about just such a near miss between two warships. And with suspicion and mistrust so embedded on both sides, who’s to say how they could react? In OPERATION PALE TIGER, this ‘accident’ sets in train a series of events around the world that spiral into confrontation and crisis. The book spans just six days, in which the world spins from diplomatic barbs to war fleets steaming towards the Taiwan Strait. Imaginary events, of course, but as friends of mine who know the workings of Beijing and Washington closely tell me: this could all be so frighteningly real.’
‘My background’. Harrison continues, ‘is international finance. I spent thirty years at the heart of global stock markets: ‘I have seen the beast’ as I like to say. This is a strange world, much stranger than most outsiders imagine. Reading the press or listening to politicians you’d think that this is a world bound in by rules and regulations. It’s not. It’s largely a moral vacuum where the ends justify any means. As one of my characters says of this world: ‘It’s a toxic nexus which twists the best of intentions and fans the worst of them.’ In OPERATION PALE TIGER the influence of forces at the very heart of this system are felt everywhere. In many ways, this is where the real power lies.’
The action in the novel takes the reader on a white-knuckle ride spanning London, Washington, Hong Kong and Colombia. Harrison’s job has taken him around the world and his real-life experience lends authenticity and credibility to the places and events he describes. His scenes in Hong Kong, for example, leave you in no doubt that he knows the back streets better than any tourist brochure. ‘Hong Kong itself is one-off, manic sort of place. It teems with the desperate energy of a city that can hardly believe it exists, this sprawling, towering metropolis clinging to the jungle hillside. Living on the edge of all this un-tamed nature is what gives the city its edge. Just walk fifteen minutes up one of the paths to the jungle and you’re in a world that can so easily hurt you.’
At the very centre of the drama is THEODORA, a uniquely powerful ‘super-computer’, with unrivalled processing power and the ability to analyse and synthesise billions of data points. And it can talk. ‘Technology has always been at the core of innovation in the markets – for good or bad.’ Harrison explains. ‘Often, spawning dramatic unintended consequences. Just look at the market crashes in history driven by machines which people discover too late they just cannot control. AI that can speak becomes more than just a machine – it becomes a character. THEODORA discovers that she has a big role to play in this story. The question is: whose side is she on?’
Is Harrison worried that AI could soon make fiction writers extinct? ‘Readers can spot the genuine from the synthetic. AI can serve up any number of character types, plot lines and settings, but just being able to assemble all the pieces in a technically flawless way might make a story – but not an adventure. I think readers want something authentic, characters and drama they can immerse themselves in. Real life is messy. I’m not sure AI quite gets that – although THEODORA may disagree!’
Key to the unfolding story are his two main characters: Anne Perry, a London Police Detective and Emma Wilson, an undercover agent with British Intelligence. ‘Although they don’t know it, from the start, they are both investigating different ends of the same conspiracy, and soon both find themselves drawn into this same murderous world. I’ve given them quite different starting points as characters: they’re both experienced professionals in their 40’s, but whilst Emma is trained to survive in that kind of environment Anne is not and has to learn fast.’
