A criminal state can rot from within or rupture. If you're lucky you get to choose. Released from Washington's propaganda smog for projects abroad, a disaffected beltway worker bee finds a pressure point that could stop a lot of lawless war and death. The trouble is the trouble doesn't stop at once. The wrench you drop in the war machine clanks and bangs around longer than you think. Returner's Diary is set in tranquil backwaters worldwide, any day now, where remorseless mathematical constraints crush your last few lofty precepts.