Taylor dropped Kudus on the north side of Vauxhall Bridge and drove on, keeping to back streets. Eat something, she thought; inject some caffeine. Had she slept? Maybe an hour or two. She got a pastry at Pret and checked the news on her phone as she drank one espresso, then another. Nothing on the events on Ascension Island yet. She stared at the street outside but saw only the seaweed-coiled remnants of space stations. What had Andrew got from Lau to justify those meetings? That bit didn’t make sense: Taylor had no impression of what Lau delivered in terms of intelligence.

She found a public phone behind the store and called the number she had for Markus Fischer.

“Someone in Six was on this before us,” she said. “Do you have any idea who?”

“No. We’re picking up reports of trouble on Ascension. Another girl gone missing.”

“What have you heard about that?”

“Just a suspect name: Edward Pearce. Know him?”

“Yes.”

“You think this connects to Quadrant?”

“I’m sure it does. Quadrant have a lease on a research facility on Ascension Island.”

“I’ve just discovered that. Do you know what they’re up to?”

“No.”

“We need to find out what they’re doing there.”

“What’s your exit plan for me?”

“We’ve been discussing this, Kathryn. There’s something very wrong going on, and it needs to see light of day if we’re to stop it. That means someone who can speak with authority.”

“You want me to be a whistleblower.”

“We would protect you. The truth would protect you.”

She laughed.

“It’s not just your career at risk anymore,” he said. “This is growing rapidly out of control.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Can we arrange to meet?”

“I’ve got one more thing to do first,” she said. “I’ll be in touch.”

Kudus called half an hour later.

“An officer named Ian Latham moved from the China desk to Defense Intelligence in 2014, looks like with a focus on China’s space capability.”

The Defence Intelligence desk supported military ops, defense policy, capability assessments of other countries’ weapons systems. This fit what she was looking for.

“Did you get a personnel file?”

“Yes. Latham trained in 1988; he was based at Six’s Moscow station in 2002, then Beijing. Fluent in French, Russian, and Chinese, left the service in July last year.”

“That sounds like our man.”

“I thought so.”

“Any idea where he went?”

“Not one hundred percent sure, but an Ian Latham comes up as a languages teacher in Guildford. Joined the school eleven months ago. Cambridge graduate, specialist in Mandarin.”

“Any pictures?”

“No. It says he has extensive experience overseas, though.”

“It’s him.”

“Maybe. I got a home address off an alumni directory.”

“You’re very good at this.”

“That makes me responsible if anything happens to you.”

“Welcome to the intelligence service.”

“We can run a security check.”