Most people who became spies did it for one of three reasons: ideology, ego, or excitement. Laing was different. He’d become a spy for the chance to escape. This made Britain’s domestic intelligence agency an odd choice of employer, but MI5 had approached him precisely with the intention of sending him far away.

Laing was an only child, born in the middle of the war. He was the product of a rapid love affair and a quick marriage. His father was a Canadian fighter pilot stationed at RAF Hornchurch, who was an ace at picking Luftwaffe bombers out of the sky in the first few months of the war until the Germans got their revenge on him in the Battle of Britain.

Laing’s mother kept his father’s memory alive with second-hand stories of the beautiful wilds of Canada. But these tales just made the young boy fixate on the idea of leaving the small Essex town where he was regularly stared at in the street. He hated the haunted looks he got from strangers who recognised him as part of that odd in-between generation that were too old to be children of peace but young enough to remind people of the innocence the war had stolen from them.

On top of that, the genes that had made his father the perfect size for a Spitfire cockpit had conspired to make Laing a very slow and late developer. He was a small, frail-looking child and a short, scrawny teenager, and it didn’t take long for children five years his junior to spurt up taller and stronger than him. No one wanted to be his friend. So, he focused on his studies at school, where he was often literally in a class of his own; distanced himself from everyone around him, including his mother; and did his best not to attract attention from anyone. However, he couldn’t resist MI5’s interest in him.

The Service’s quest to replenish its ranks after losing so many of its best men to the war had eventually led it to the son of a dead Canadian pilot. The officers sent to recruit Laing wooed him with the possibility of building a new life for himself abroad, and he jumped at the chance. He was groomed, trained to become a security liaison officer, and promised that his first posting would be in Canada. A brief visit to meet his paternal grandparents in Toronto had even been arranged before he took up his position in Ottawa.

Somehow Laing had been given everything he’d ever wanted, and he’d ruined it. But he was determined to get it all back, so if that meant putting up with Knox’s unwanted and unnecessary supervision then that’s what he’d do. He’d jump through every hoop the Service put in front of him to get away from Britain again.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14