24 Hours in London (2000) - Synopsis
Set in 2009, 24 Hours in London takes place against a backdrop of increased crime, a hard line government, and the dominance of organised crime syndicates.
The foremost of these organisations is run by the crime baron Christian who believes there is little difference between legitimate business and crime if it is handled honourably. Christian controls London, he has rivals but they are strictly small time in comparison. With access to corrupt officials and by blackmailing MP'S, Christian has evaded prosecution despite the governments get tough on criminals policy. He has the country's top lawyers on his payroll ensuring that charges brought never stick.
The police would pay handsomely to get their hands on him, particularly Chief Inspector Duggan who has spent the latter half of his career trying to pin something on Christian.
Christian aims now to expand globally through a merger with his American counterpart Miss Lloyd. Crime families on the continent are rumoured to be considering setting up outfits in London. The deal with Lloyd would secure Christian's future. 24 Hours in London kicks of with final preparations coming into place for the merger.
Novell, McKenzie and Berrick are the other players in the battle for London's streets. Although they have different areas of speciality, be it drugs or extortion, too often they have trodden on Christian's toes and he cannot afford to show any weakness when dealing with Miss Lloyd.
Martha Bedford enters the story as an innocent bystander to the meeting between Christian and McKenzie. The meeting ends in a blood bath. Martha is the only witness to survive. She becomes the key in the police quest to bring down Christian.
Realising that Martha can destroy him, Christian sets out to kill her before the police can arrest him. No one knows that Martha is not the innocent she pretends to be.
In reality Martha is Miss Lloyds niece, she's been working for her for several years now, on both sides of the Atlantic. Lloyd's plans involved Martha taking out Christian at the park. Things didn't quite go so smoothly and Martha is forced to improvise.
Lloyd meanwhile has set a back-up plan into operation by planting one of her men, Tony, into Christian's organisation, telling Christian that Tony is there to observe and help him smooth out any difficulties in preparation for their alliance. This does not instantly gain Tony Christian's trust, which is something he will have to earn himself. When the time is right Tony will strike and destroy Christian.
On the other side of the law, a small band of brave detectives see it as their duty to keep Martha alive. Well, except that one of them is on Christian's payroll and two of them are actually organ-Ieggers. Making a living through transplanting healthy organs for rich clients, Samuel and Michelle find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Through an unfortunate coincidence they chose an undercover detective as their latest donor and have decided to take on his identity so they can collect their fee. Luckily Samuel's charm and skills of deception have everybody fooled, keeping their true identities hidden until the last minute.
This all leads to a showdown at the hotel where identities are revealed, loyalties exchanged, and bullets fired.
