Scrambling South

The 3rd Jonas Forbes Thriller
This is set in 1956 Egypt immediately after the Suez Crisis. The conflict, however, hasn’t been settled for Egypt, Israel and Britain and when a cypher key undermining Israeli espionage is reported hidden in Luxor, they all want to get their hands on it; but, for once, Britain is the first to react. Despite the doubts of certain Foreign Office mandarins Jonas Forbes is sent to recover the document. Not surprisingly he’s soon spotted by Egyptian Intelligence. He eludes them long enough to get the document but the Mukhabarat aren’t easily shaken off and return home via Cairo is clearly impossible. So Jonas decides to use the daunting exit through the desert bordering Sudan.
He soon finds he can’t rely on help from local British sympathisers and hides himself away among a band of gypsies travelling south. But they’re soon anxious to be rid of such a dangerous companion so he’s quickly back on his own resources on the shore of the Red Sea and unable to contact London. He doesn’t know that, as certain mandarins in Whitehall clearly would prefer him dead than succeed, help from home is not guaranteed.
The Mukhabarat haven’t given up and the frontier with Sudan is closely watched. They can rely on help finding their quarry through patriotic (or greedy!) elements in the native population. However, a far greater menace to success is an Israeli Mossad unit determined to recover ‘their’ property. Somehow, and after weeks of being posted as missing, Jonas reaches the Sudan – unexpected and not exactly welcome to British agents based there. But he’s still got to dodge both Egyptian and Israeli Intelligence units before he’s safe. Will Britain send help to get him out – especially as Whitehall can’t be sure whether the cypher still has any value?
Historical research underlies this thriller in which a lone man in a challenging environment has to tackle both human and natural threats.