Taylor and Kudus sat in the car, looking out over Hyde Park. No update on Kane. Taylor wondered if he was physically safe, if he was sweating in a cell, if he was wondering what she was doing for him, and what she could do. Meanwhile, from what Kudus could establish from a call into the office, there were a lot of people looking for Taylor, from the police to her seniors in MI6.

She needed to get legitimate security precautions in place for Lau. She needed to find Andrew, if he was still alive and able to talk. The next time she stepped into HQ, it would be her last; she wouldn’t be leaving it a free woman. There had always been rumors of interrogation rooms on the second basement level. She’d have a chance to find out.

Taylor tore the cellophane off a pack of cigarettes. She checked her phone. Her sister was calling, from a life far away.

“I’m meant to be at a birthday party,” Taylor said. Kudus studied her.

“What are you going to do?”

“Disappoint my family once again.”

“I mean, about this. What’s your theory?”

“My theory is that Andrew got something he shouldn’t have, something about Ascension, and then he was shut down, painted out of the picture before it could spread.”

A white transit van rolled in behind them. It parked and the driver made a call on his mobile. Kudus saw it too. A few seconds later it drove off again.

“Are we being paranoid?”

“I don’t know. Maybe not.”

Taylor felt a ripple of trepidation as she started the engine.

“You’re going to have to go into the office,” Taylor said. “Tell them you’ve lost contact with me. Tell Chris Hawkes about Lau—where he is, what he needs. Chris is in a better position than us when it comes to arranging protection. Then we need to find out what happened to Andrew. There’s not that many officers trained to handle agents overseas. Narrow that down to Chinese-speakers, someone with the confidence and experience to manage a multiterritory operation, and I think we can identify him. Product on China’s intelligence service comes around once in a blue moon. He’ll either have been on the China desk or working on defense technology. If the intelligence touched on space or satellites, Helen Jackson may have been receiving reports. She’s trustworthy. See what you can do.”