An aircraft carrying five and a half million pounds in gold bullion approaches a small airfield in the South of England. It is soon to become the scene of one of the biggest, most audacious robberies ever planned...

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.