1919. Colonel Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia – has an unpleasant meeting with an MI5 agent who confiscates his manuscript of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. 35 years later, Oxford is shaken by a series of burglaries at the Ashmolean Museum, at the same time as Blake learns of the death of an old friend. The captain begins an investigation, while Mortimer looks into the thefts... But what dark connection does all of this have with Lawrence or Blake’s own past?

The captain and the professor have finally made it to the secret base with the Swordfish blueprints, and construction has begun on the extraordinary machines. Olrik hasn't had his last word, though, and he is ready to take tremendous risks to locate the world's last bastion of resistance and freedom.