“You think we might get jumped?”

“I think it’s possible.” They swerved between traffic.

“What’s the current situation in the South Atlantic?” Taylor said.

“Tense. Your people are going a bit crazy about this ship. Meanwhile something’s very screwy on Ascension Island itself. You heard about that?”

“Some kind of signals disruption.”

“Right. Is it connected to the ship?”

“Possibly. If I can establish contact with my colleague in Vauxhall, I may be able to get you more.”

Fischer made a call in rapid German, then pulled a U-turn and tore toward the city. He didn’t speak again until they got to Bishopsgate, where he stopped suddenly, double parked, climbed out. She scrambled to follow.

“We’re here,” he said, handing the car keys to a man on the sidewalk, who climbed in and had the BMW moving again before Taylor knew what was happening. “Follow me.” Fischer led her into the marble foyer of what a glossy sign announced as MARWITZ-LEYEN PRIVATBANKIERS. They took an unmarked door off the foyer into a long corridor with oil paintings to a second door with a suited man in front of it. Taylor glimpsed a holster as he touched his thumb to the keypad at the side, then entered a pin. The door slid open. Fischer led her down a more austere corridor to a windowless boardroom, where a man and a woman sat before an array of communication devices: an older man in suspenders, a woman with a blond bob. As the door clicked closed behind her, Taylor saw it was a secure communications facility with radio frequency shielding on the walls. The intelligence officers looked at Taylor, but none seemed surprised by her presence. The man nodded.

On the screens were connections with the federal intelligence service HQ in central Berlin and the German embassy in Belgravia.

“The Foreign Office scheduled a six p.m. call with the White House,” the woman said. “They will discuss whether to strike.”

Fischer glanced at Taylor, looking uncharacteristically tense. He checked the monitors, then gestured for Taylor to sit down. Then he brought up aerial footage of the ship.

“The Yantar, usually found in the port of Severomorsk, attached to Russia’s Northern Fleet. But we’ve seen it before in the Caribbean, usually near Cuba or Trinidad and Tobago, just outside of sovereign waters. Recently it’s been sailing off the coast of Brazil. The size and the extensive array of sensors suggests it’s purpose-built for signals intelligence gathering. But it’s also armed with what look like two close-in weapon systems and what may be a surface-to-air missile launcher. Six hours ago it changed course, headed directly for Ascension Island.”

The Germans had data from NATO’s Brussels HQ. The signals analysts there had picked up some mysterious communication between the island and this ship. It looked like a radio burst of some kind, coinciding with the ship’s redirection.