His body fell straight down, folding under him, and for a moment the man kneeled against the alley’s tiles as if he’d suddenly turned to prayer. But then he slid sideways, hitting the pavement slab with a dull thud.

Anna glanced along the alley to the Strand. She felt a chill run through her and realised the night was turning colder—and that she had no money for a cab. So she turned the dead man over, checked his pockets, and pulled his wallet out of his trousers. There was some money inside, but nothing she could use to identify him. She rolled him onto his front, pulled his coat off, draped it over her shoulders, walked down to the Strand, and hailed a taxi.

She asked the driver to take her to the top of Marylebone High Street, and made the rest of her journey to Durrants on foot, pausing for a few minutes on the corner of George Street to see if anyone was watching the entrance to the hotel.

She’d spent the whole journey across central London thinking about the dead man and why he’d been able to predict her every move until she resorted to a lesson in how to kill she’d taught herself long before the Soviets had recruited her. She still didn’t know who he’d been working for, but she didn’t like the possibilities she’d narrowed it down to. Either Line Z had decided they no longer required her services and she’d become a loose end to tie up, or some other faction in the KGB had managed to identify her and wanted her eliminated.

Whichever the answer might be, Anna had little interest in facing it in London. In fact, she was happy not to face it at all. She had plenty of identities and bank accounts stashed around Europe, and she decided now would be a perfect time to use a fair amount of both to disappear for a while. If someone was after her she could wait them out, or take them on on her own terms. And if this was all just an unfortunate and fatal misunderstanding there would be ways for her to contact Line Z and come back in once things had blown over.

So, she went up to her room, which was still exactly as she’d left it, changed out of her gold gown, stuffed the rest of the money left over from buying it into the pocket of her new greatcoat, and left the hotel.

Back on Marylebone High Street she hailed another cab, which took her to King’s Cross just in time for her to buy a ticket for the overnight train to Edinburgh.

Chapter 54

Chapter 54