The opening is striking. A virus has released the computerised locks of Australia’s prisons, releasing their inmates. Because the security systems were mostly designed by American companies, the virus affects their jails too. A female hacker is apprehended, with echoes of the Julian Assange affair: “American politicians … did not seem to understand she was not their citizen and therefore could not be their traitor any more than she could be their patriot.” Her extradition and execution is called for. Felix Moore is a left-wing crusading journalist in disgrace. A new assignment may restore his tarnished reputation: to write a biography and apologia for the hacker. Gaby, aka Fallen Angel, is the daughter of a politician and an actress, Celine Baillieux, an old frien