The foreign secretary shrugged. ‘Not that difficult. We do exactly what they’re trying to do with us, persuade them they’ve secretly discovered our absolute, irreducible, die-in-the-ditch bottom line. They want us to believe they’d settle for twenty per cent below their publicly stated figure but no lower, which is still way above what we would even consider. So we turn the tables. We convince them we’d go twenty per cent above our offer but not a centime more and that if we don’t get it we’ll walk away without a deal. Which is what I think we should do, anyway, but that’s by the by. If we can get them to believe it –really believe it – they’ll compromise. They always do, they’re Europeans, they want to keep the show on the road. They suggest a figure halfway between the two that is more than I think we should pay but politically and economically we could live with it. It’s high stakes but it’s worth it so long as we’re prepared to act as if we really will walk away, that we really mean it. That’s where it might get difficult. In cabinet, I mean. But not all cabinet members need know about it.’

Charles felt it was going his way. ‘D’you think the prime minister would agree?’

Grimacing, the foreign secretary took his hands from his pockets and ran them through his hair. ‘Maybe. Probably. Possibly. Hard to say. She’s met you, hasn’t she?’

‘In National Security Council meetings. We’ve had only one bilateral.’

‘She might agree. Might.’ The foreign secretary jerked himself upright, hands clasped before him, staring directly at Charles. ‘Thing is – your crucial link, this Horley chap, is also your weak link. You admit you can’t trust him so you have to find some complicated way of getting him to do it without realising he’s doing it. Not a prospect guaranteed to win prime ministerial confidence. But what might work with her is if you do it yourself. You’ve met the Wolf chap, you got on with him, you reckon. If you can get him to take the bait in another meeting we’ll at least know he’s taken it and that it’s the right bait. You become your own agent, as it were. What do you think, Robin?’

‘Improvement of sorts, I suppose.’

Charles hesitated. The foreign secretary’s stare was unyielding and calculating. ‘Well, it could be me but it would surely be better, more natural—’

‘I can see it might make for awkwardness with your Horley bloke when you hoof him off the case. But the whole thing is so chancy that it needs whatever level of reassurance we can give it. So that’s the deal. It’s that or no go.’