The Shanghai Protocol

Marcus Kane came to Shanghai to protect one frightened man. Within hours, he discovers the real problem is far larger. Xu Wen wants only one thing, to get his daughter Lan out of Jinghe House, where a respected private protection company has begun controlling who she sees, where she goes and when she can leave. But Northbank Advisory is not a criminal gang hiding behind locked doors. It provides lawyers, housing, jobs, security and practical help to people abandoned by the systems that once relied on them. The help is real. So is the price. As Kane and Mei Lin begin pulling apart Northbank's carefully constructed protection programme, they uncover six lives tied together by contracts, dependency and fear. Each person has been given something worth keeping. Each has also been quietly taught what they might lose if they stop cooperating. And Xu is forced to confront the most painful truth of all, he helped build the very system now being used against his daughter. With time running out before the final declarations are signed, Kane faces a problem he cannot solve by simply getting people out. Some want to leave. Some want to stay. Some still believe Northbank is their best chance at a future. Breaking the system means giving them something harder than rescue. A genuine choice. Set against the streets, offices and riverfront of Shanghai, The Shanghai Protocol is an intelligent international thriller about loyalty, coercion, responsibility and the dangerous line between protecting someone and controlling them. The Shanghai Protocol is Book Two in the Marcus Kane Thriller series.