When Australia commits to AUKUS and the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, the decision reverberates far beyond politics.

Daniel Mercer is a senior submarine engineer working at the heart of the programme. Careful, respected, and quietly ambitious, he is used to calculating strategic risk — not becoming it.

As tensions escalate over Taiwan and Beijing tests Western resolve, he enters a series of unofficial conversations that seem harmless at first — professional, theoretical, abstract.

No secrets are passed.

No money changes hands.

Yet influence can be as powerful as espionage — and far harder to detect.

A flaw in Daniel’s carefully ordered life leaves him exposed — and those opposed to AUKUS are ready to exploit it.

When crisis erupts and scrutiny reaches the highest levels, institutions move swiftly to protect themselves. In Canberra, Hong Kong, and Washington, the machinery of state closes ranks.

Daniel learns too late that systems survive by sacrificing what they must. Individuals don’t.

No Clean Exit is a gripping and unsettling political thriller about loyalty, ambition, and the hidden cost of being useful in a world heading toward conflict.

Because when nations embrace brinkmanship, someone always pays.