‘Nothing. After I dropped the tape in to you on Tuesday morning, I went in and took his office apart, but I couldn’t find anything. I had a damn good look through it – I had the whole day. He drove straight home after going to the BBC, and telephoned the office to say he wouldn’t be coming in because he felt under the weather. I’m not surprised; I was bloody knackered too – and at least he’d had three hours’ kip. He stayed home the whole day – slept, did a bit of gardening, watched some television.’

‘Didn’t his wife wonder where he had been?’

‘No. It’s normal in his job – he does midnight swoop operations on various power stations quite regularly. Yesterday, he went into work and didn’t speak to a soul all day – no phone calls, nothing.’

‘Proper little Jekyll and Hyde,’ said Fifeshire.

‘Aren’t the Russians going to think it odd if the BBC don’t put this tape out – or don’t mention it at least? Surely they would expect that in the search for Quoit, news of this tape would spread across every paper and every television screen in the country?’

‘I think the BBC should put it out, put the whole thing out. They can explain the delay by saying they wanted to check whether or not it was a hoax, and now they are satisfied that it is genuine. After all, we don’t want our Russian chums to think we know something do we?’

‘Not if we’re to have any chance of finding Quoit before they get him on that plane.’

‘Finding Quoit isn’t exactly going to be easy.’

‘If he’s going on a plane, and a schedule flight at that, then he’ll have to go to Heathrow Airport – they can hardly get the plane to swoop low over wherever they’re holding him and hoist him up on the end of a rope.’

‘And where do you suppose he’s going to be at Heathrow?’ said Fifeshire, dryly. ‘In the first-class lounge carrying a big placard which says, “I’m defecting to Russia”?’

I ignored his remark. ‘The baggage hold.’

‘The Russians don’t let anyone near their baggage or their holds. We wouldn’t have a hope of getting a look-in there.’

‘Couldn’t we pick him up before they get him to the baggage hold?’

‘You’d have to stop and search every single vehicle coming into Heathrow, both to the passenger and the cargo terminals; there’d be a traffic jam fifty miles long – and still no guarantee of finding him. He could be packed away in a container at the back of a goods truck – you couldn’t possibly search every container going into Heathrow.’

‘Maybe we could find him before they move him to the airport. He’s probably in a Russian safe-house – there must be a list of Russian safe-houses?’