The whole thing depended on having physical access to the major junction points, and, by a feat of historical felicity, this put the UK at an advantage. When fiber-optic cables began to be laid they followed the paths of the old imperial telegraph system. These, logically enough, connected the great stations of empire, with the United Kingdom at the center of the web.

Not only did fiber-optic cables now carry more than ninety percent of the world’s data, but eighteen of the most important came ashore in Cornwall. The Americans had recognized that. They had cash, the UK had places. Over the last few years, millions had poured in from the NSA’s Foreign Partner Access budget, and windowless structures appeared on farms near Bude and Porthcurno, crammed with deep-dive processors that could turn a tsunami of data into searchable information.

The major cable companies received tens of millions of pounds to turn a blind eye to men like Rory installing hidden connections. But when the companies weren’t cooperative, you needed other means. That was where Kane came in.

Seeb was part of a GCHQ network in Oman, focused on cables under the Strait of Hormuz. The strait was a narrow point in the Persian Gulf, busy with undersea cables: one carrying Iranian communications, one with Iraqi traffic, another handling all Yemen’s voice and text data. The UK had a tight relationship with Oman involving three joint military training bases and a logistic support center in Duqm, but much of it was cover for GCHQ interest in the strait. This time around, because the relevant cable company was Chinese, they had to hack into their network, which brought a whole new level of complication, along with the need for Kane to run high-sensitivity human sources. So here we all are, Rory had concluded, sipping his whisky, eyes twinkling.

The actual technical details wouldn’t have meant anything to Kane, but he now appreciated the background. On the next round they talked poetry. Rory knew a lot of poems and songs by heart, a quality Kane rated above most others. A large man, he sang with a high, delicate vibrato, his whole physicality changing as if this, not speech, was his natural medium.

Kane returned to the UK when his own contribution had been completed. Taylor and Rory stayed on. Her marriage was already rocky, and he could see they were developing a friendship born of two people glad to be away from home. Kane had learned little about the subsequent scandal: He knew that Rory Bannatyne was caught doing something he shouldn’t, Taylor had paid some money, kept police at a distance, sent him back to the UK. Which was all standard procedure: Protect the Service at all costs.