With time ticking inexorably downwards, the marketing team come up with a major public event to mark the 1,000 days to the milestone. A huge clock designed by a modern British artist will be installed outside the Tate Modern on the banks of the Thames in a ceremony hosted by both Sebastian Coe and Boris Johnson and will count down towards the start of the Olympic Games. The only problem is that the clock has a potentially disastrous design flaw which no one seems to have noticed until it's too late...

Meanwhile, the process of deciding which public figures should be approached to carry the Olympic Torch on its journey around Britain has begun, and head of deliverance Ian Fletcher discovers that he is going on a romantic mini-break with his wife, whether he likes it or not...