Sean Mason is thirty seven, divorced and cynical. If you wanted to be charitable to him, you would describe him as a craggy six foot one, if you wanted to put the boot in then he has seen his best days and they have not been kind to him. The DEA may be salvation. The chance to get over a failed marriage, to find a place where he might be able to rediscover the part of him that used to care. Nicky Jenkins is a lost loner in the troubled downtown area of Washington. Simon Parkinson is the standard bearer of the Tory frontbench. "The Pipeline" is what draws these players together into a game which will cost at least one of them his life. Based in downtown Washington Mason becomes the key to an international crime empire which crosses the Atlantic and which re-opens wounds long since healed. The pipeline has been running for eight months. No interruptions, no delays. Eight months uninterrupted flow of grade-one, top of the range heroin straight into the heart of the industrial North East. copyright Simon Marsh .