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2000s: Operation Meltwater is about to reveal some devastating secrets
2000s: Operation Meltwater is about to reveal some devastating secrets
Operation Meltwater: FreeFlow, a group of internet activists committed to the freedom of information have video evidence of a military atrocity in the Middle East and have chosen Iceland as their HQ while they prepare to unleash their greatest coup on the world’s media.
On the glacial rim of erupting volcano Eyjafjallajokull, they christen their endeavour Operation Meltwater. Minutes later, in the steam and mist, one of them is murdered.
Freeflow has antagonized many people and many governments so the list of suspects is long. Magnus Jonson starts to investigate but he’s not getting a lot of help from the secretive group
Not far away, Asta, a newly qualified priest, has contacted FreeFlow with information about a scandal in the church. Her involvement with FreeFlow will cost her dear.
Freeflow (a fictional Wikileaks) and an active volcano provide for a fascinating background to an international scandal – with both set to explode.
The island becomes isolated as airlines cannot fly. The country is cut off from the rest of the world and from itself since the ash cloud acts like a blanket hiding and concealing anything and everything in its path. Just when Freeflow is about to reveal some information, the biggest blanket of a cover up quite literally clouds Iceland in a secretive shield.
There is a claustrophobic atmosphere throughout. Iceland is cut off by an ash cloud and the FreeFlow Team are confined for their safety to the safe house in Reykjavik.
Iceland is evoked with care and attention and is a secretive world both on line and in the cities and rural villages in the novel.
It changes in a second:
The sun glinted off the grey Fazafloi Bay, and Reykjavik was gleaming in the distance. It was a little less than two hours to Bjarnarhofn from Reykjavik
then:
“It was as if the volcano had thrust a mighty fist of violent meltwater down the glacier towards the sea, knocking all before it in a churning, grinding tumult of destruction.”
Raw power. Frightening.
Author/ Guide: Michael Ridpath Destination: Iceland, Hvolsvöllur, Eyjafjallajökull, Bjarnarhofn, Reykjavik Departure Time: 2010
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