‘You still don’t understand, do you? It’s too late, Max.’ She laid her hand on my chest. ‘The money they sent to me, they used it for hardware, too. That’s why I stopped. That’s why I left. Amos found out what they were doing, what it was really for.’

‘And what, exactly,’ I asked her, ‘was that?’

‘A computer. The Russians are building a computer, a working, powerful, true quantum computer. The Americans, the British, the Israelis, the Chinese – even the Indians – everyone has been trying. It was always just an impossible idea, a dream that no one really thought would ever come true, not like this, not for decades. But the Russians are doing it, Max. Soon it won’t be a dream any more. They lied to me and they used me. Used my vision. My faith.’

I looked at the mad marks on the wall with fresh eyes and saw, finally, what she had seen all along. She followed my eyes as I read the signs and symbols.

‘You asked what it means, Max. It means absolute power. It isn’t a dream any more. It’s a nightmare.’

33

Zero zero thirty hours.

Outside, the church of St Michael, patron saint of soldiers, loomed over me in the night. The snow had stopped falling and the clouds had opened enough to see stars here and there. But there was no moon and the road beyond the village dissolved into darkness. Under different circumstances it would have been beautiful. But then and there it looked, felt lethal.

We had around seven hours until first light. It was a twenty-two-hour, twelve-hundred-kilometre drive first north and then west across frozen-hard tank country to Estonia and the nearest friendly border that bypassed Moscow. I had no decent cold kit, no intel and no meds. I did have half a dozen bruised ribs, a badly sprained knee and two bullet wounds. But thanks to Aleksandr Denisovich I also had the keys to a car – or soon would. And Baaz? He had the keys to the kingdom, if only he knew it. He’d never get the credit for bringing back the algorithm – but I’d make sure that he was compensated handsomely. The ‘Bhavneet Singh School of Quantum Computing’ had a satisfying ring to it.

I put the battery into Talia’s cell phone and switched it on. The screen was cracked, smashed from the dive on to the truck in Moscow. But the processor was undamaged and it came to life. One bar of service cut in and out. I moved further from the house, opened Signal and typed:

Mobile to Värska by road. RV 2300HRS. Likely have Red Forces in pursuit. Please have welcoming committee ready. Tea and Medals. Out.