‘You look into those eyes, those million, million eyes, and you fall in love. That’s how. There’s no escape. There’s nowhere to run. You can’t hide. He sees everything, all the time, from one end of the world to the other. And as you open your mouth to tell this angel, this wonder, that you love him, that your heart has broken, he lets fall a drop of gall between your lips, and then you cease to be, putrefied by your own passion. That is the Helper of Ha’Shem. That is the Destroyer. And I have seen him.’ She pivoted abruptly and threw the candle at the wall with all her might. Wax exploded across the giant calculation laid out before her. ‘And this is what he looks like.’

Everyone has a breaking point. I had one. Rachel had reached hers. Moshe had been right: she had gone insane. She stood facing the wall, shaking. I peered into the corners of the room, glanced at the ceiling, and then over my shoulder towards the door. She kept her back to me and composed herself.

‘I know who you are, Max Mac Ghill’ean, or McLean, or whatever you call yourself now. I know who you are. And I know what you are.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘A murderer.’ She turned around. ‘My father told me everything. About how he helped you to join the army. About how you ran away. And do you know what? He was glad, Max. Glad I got away from you, glad I was free of you. He loved you. But, by God, how he despised what you became. That’s why he drank. Not because of your mother. Because of you.’

‘That’s not true, that’s …’

‘There is only one reason that you’re here, and that’s because you’ve got the banknote. It’s the only reason you could be here. The only person Arkhangel means anything to, apart from him, is you.’

‘And you? What does it mean to you? Why name your project after it? Why write it on the note? Why send it to him? Why come here at all? Why run? There’s nowhere to go from here. You’re trapped.’

‘I didn’t come here to escape, Max. I came here to do something I should have done a long time ago. I came here for the same reason you did.’ She took a step towards me. ‘To understand.’

‘But I don’t … I don’t understand.’

Yet in my guts I began to feel the truth unfurling like the Devil’s banner.

‘You don’t think they sat up all night just talking about Russia, do you? Your mother and my father?’

‘Rachel, don’t.’