The Uncounted

Is the girl on the train beside you a free citizen, or is she enslaved by debt bondage? Human trafficking is the fastest growing industry run by organised crime. Detective Inspector Sean Fagan of SOCA investigates the Agency, a criminal fraternity trafficking illegal immigrants. When MI5 inform Fagan the Agency are contracting expendable people for use by an Islamic terror cell, the pressure mounts while the SIS manipulate dark and secret ways to fight their long-term wars. Trapped in a wretched world of modern slavery, abuse and barbaric killings, Jelena an illegal from Kosovo dreams of freedom but violent forces which shaped her adolescence still dominate her life. Jelena is given to the terrorists as a disposable chattel and finds herself locked in a flat with millions of virus contaminated bank notes. Death awaits until events reunite her with Gavrilo, the boy she had known and loved when both were adolescents. Now mentally disturbed but a successful car thief and solider for the Agency, Gavrilo seeks refuge from reality by busking with his violin while believing Jelena is an angel, a vision who he has always loved but believes is dead. As Fagan closes, a bomb containing enough anthrax to kill thousands is unwittingly carried by Gavrilo into Central London. With Jelena's help, MI5 and SOCA desperately search as the timing device ticks to detonation and the destruction of British democratic tolerance. The slave industry is alive and flourishing. Between 500,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked into the EU every year. The favoured destination is England. Tied by debt bondage women are forced into prostitution while men are used in organised crime or hired out to labour intensive employment where they receive little or no payment. The rebellious are frequently murdered. When beyond physical exploitation many are used for benefit fraud or sold on for organ transplant

James McKenna was born during the bombing of London in WWII and as the child of a British Army officer, spent time amidst the wretchedness of post-war Austria before travelling with his family to the Far East. At the age of 15 he joined the British Army and attended the apprenticeship college at Harrogate, then the Royal School of Military Engineering. At 17 he passed selection for the Paras serving in the Gulf and Europe. Afterwards running his own electronic and physical protection company gave insider knowledge for his crime thrillers The Unseen, The Uncounted, The Unwanted and Global Raider. Now a father and grandfather, in parallel to these crime thrillers, he has ventured into the action/fantasy world of the young reader aged 12+. The Mind Traveller is the first of a series where Rosie adventures deep into the unchartered universe of Mind Space. As a fulltime writer he lives between the UK, Portugal and Ireland.