When a computer virus hacks into the Australian prison system in 2010, it also infects the American corporations that licensed the software. The virus spreads like bushfire, releasing not only asylum seekers across Australia, but also unlocking thousands of American correctional facilities and prisons.
The hacker responsible - "Angel", aka Gabrielle Baillieux - is the 30-year-old golden daughter of an actress and a left-wing MP. Born into bohemian comfort in a Melbourne suburb, she'd grown up becoming "precocious in the way you might expect". Had she meant to cause this much damage? Her backers say yes, arguing that Angel's crime was political, a deliberate attack on the United States. Her mother says no, hoping Gaby won't be extradited to face the death penalty.
The man hired to write Gaby's story is Felix Moore, a shambolic journalist who describes himself as "a socialist and a servant of the truth" but whose daughters attend private schools and whose colleagues know him as "Moore-or-less correct".
Felix is in no doubt that Gaby's actions were political, what he calls "retaliation" for "the events of 1975" when Australia's Labor government was dismissed in what he thinks was a US-backed coup.
In this, as in so many other endeavours, Felix is bankrolled by his old mate Woody Townes, a corpulent property developer who has something going with Gaby's beautiful mother Celine - the first love of Felix's life. Woody installs Felix in an apartment with a laptop and amphetamines, and Celine promises that crucial face-to-face interview with Gaby.
