Sahara Desserres – Synopsis

 

As far as Sahara Desserres is concerned, the Egyptian authorities consider her to be a high-end tourist guide. In reality, she smuggles assets across its sensitive borders. When one of those assets, Rob Macey, goes missing, the British government is keen to discover his fate.
Sahara finds herself knee-deep in turbulent and shifting sands when she’s required to join forces with a former British police officer tasked with investigating Macey’s whereabout. Initially, Sahara finds Mac Macdonell to be refreshingly forthright and reassuringly professional. However, she soon discovers that there is another, deeply disturbing aspect to his duplicitous character that is as full of demons as the landscape through which they are forced to navigate. In their search, they are guided by the enigmatic Captain Mathew Price and the apparent love of his life (his stoic donkey, Sweetheart) into the harshest and most politically sensitive region of Egyptian/Sudanese territory, the Hala’ib Triangle, where they hope to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Rob Macey.
What they discover, is a clue that will lead them into even more treacherous terrain - one of shifting loyalties and uncertain alliances, and a secret left to Sahara by her father, Colonel Jacques Desserres.
It’s a secret with the power to topple governments, and it’s a tool with the capability of making kings.
The Egyptian secret service agency has wind of it. The British and the French authorities would exploit it, but thanks to the legacy of her father, only Sahara is fully able to decipher it.
From the deserts of Egypt to the high mountains of the French alps, Sahara and her two, highly unlikely companions, follow a deadly trail that leads them to the most unexpected of outcomes. Both for themselves and also, potentially, for the entire world.

Note: The Born To Be King project is a long-term, deep-rooted, covert operation conceived and controlled by Sahara’s father, aimed at placing pro-western assets - people who may eventually become significantly influential - into countries with anti-western views such as Egypt. For example, as a young man, el Sisi (El Fayad in the book) was educated in the west and only much later-on became the President of Egypt. It’s easy to envisage how such a list might affect the futures of anyone who might be on it.