The Scandalous Memoirs of General John Torrance

Jack rescues a very public figure, and he’s drawn into a gilded world with few rules and heady stakes. It’s 1880: The world is small; the players have perilous ambitions. Espionage has always been a polite game, but now the stakes are changing.

Jack is seconded to the tiny British Intelligence Department, little more than a map room in 1880. He’s assigned to the Balkans, Turkey, and Africa Desk – a hodgepodge of low priority. Jack’s got nearly nothing to do, but he wants to learn. He works on his Arabic and he seeks out experts on Islam and the complicated politics of the Ottoman Empire. When trouble erupts in Egypt, his friends offer to pay his way to Cairo. Perhaps Jack can help free the Egyptians from the control of Constantinople.

Major Jack Torrance is trying to come to grips with being a spy. Is he always on the side of what's right or is it a matter of not being on the side of what's worse? Events often move too quickly to be able to tell. The future has been foretold. A guide—the Mahdi—will free Soudan, free Egypt, and topple the corrupt Ottoman Empire. Soudan falls to the Mahdi. The Khedive in Cairo hires Englishman General Charles Gordon to go to Khartoum and evacuate the Egyptians and Europeans trapped within the walled city. Gordon gets there but can’t get out.