She unpacked a smile and handed it back to him, but with a touch less frost than before. ’They are safe, as you’d know, sir. The Brits have them tucked away on a farm up in Scotland. They have good people looking after them, and more taking care of our farm while we’re away. They’re not a distraction. They’re a motivation. Is that what you wanted to hear, Mr Culver?’

Jed nodded, just a slight bobbing of the head. ‘It’s good that you’re motivated,’ he told her, ‘because I have something to ask of you.’

‘You do?’ she shot back. ‘Or the President does?’

Larrison looked like he was preparing to get all stern and old school again, but Culver shook his head as if to say Don’t bother.

‘I’ll tell you straight, Ms Monroe. Caitlin. You mind if I call you Caitlin?’

‘The list of things I care about is very short.’

He took a seat in the nearest swivel chair and motioned for the others to do the same as he gazed out over the city. Before the Wave had swept away most of Canada’s population, Vancouver had been a small city. About half-a-million people, as he recalled. It was twice that now, swollen with Canadians and Americans returned from abroad, where they had avoided the fate of their compatriots. Crowded too with migrants, another quarter-million of them from China and the Punjab mostly, although a few neighbourhoods were solidly Vietnamese and, surprisingly, Japanese. For the capital of such an empty, haunted country, Vancouver was crowded. Evidence of new, unregulated building was everywhere. Office towers had been given over to residential use without much planning, and new developments were spreading out on the city’s edge. Jed crinkled his eyes against the glare of the winter sun before turning away from the view.

‘The President knows nothing of this meeting and never will,’ he said. ‘Unless I’m called to testify in my own criminal trial at some point in the future.’

Agent Monroe did not react. She simply waited for him to continue. He admired that. Jed Culver had never been one for hysterics and drama queens.

‘Frankly, I’d have been happy if any arrangement you and I might come to could’ve been settled without the involvement of your boss here. I see no need to involve Mr Larrison –’