‘No, I doubt it very much. This whole incident is immensely embarrassing to them, particularly at a time when détente for them has never been better, and their trade with Russia is booming. I should think the French are relieved as hell there’s only one corpse, and they’ve probably already got it off their hands and sent it to Russia. In case the Russians try and check up on its identity, and manage to steal Sir Isaac’s dental records, we’ve had it equipped with an exact copy of Sir Isaac’s set of teeth – it was fairly easy, as Sir Isaac has no teeth at all, only dentures.’

Quoit blushed. At least it brought some colour to his face.

‘Wouldn’t it have been easier to alter Sir Isaac’s dental records?’ asked Ross.

‘Of course it would have been,’ snapped Fifeshire. He didn’t like people questioning his methods – particularly people he didn’t like. ‘But for all we know, the Russians might have made a copy before the kidnap took place; we didn’t want to take the risk. Now are there any questions on what I have said so far?’ Fifeshire looked around the group.

‘Yes,’ said Ross. ‘How are the Russians going to explain Quoit’s death to us?’

‘The Russians don’t know that we have Sir Isaac back; they will believe we assume Quoit to be in Russia, and that, having said his piece, he probably doesn’t need to make any more public appearances. In a few months’ time, I expect they will notify us that he has been killed in some sort of accident – probably a car crash – and that will be the end of it.’

‘Thank you. Now, my next question,’ said Ross, assuming command of question time, ‘is what precisely are the steps you are taking, and how much time do you think we have?’

‘I don’t know how long we have. I’m assuming it’s only a matter of weeks. With regard to the steps we are taking: Flynn has a twenty-four-hour surveillance on Whalley. We are hoping Whalley will soon meet again with his contact – the man from whom he collected the videotape. The contact gave Flynn’s men the slip last time, but next time they will hang onto him with glue. Unfortunately, we know nothing about him except that he drives a dark-coloured Ford Capri with false licence plates. The owners of every dark-coloured Ford Capri in Britain are being checked on, but it’s a massive task. Frankly, we’ll be lucky if anything comes from that. Whalley is by far our best bet; he’ll lead us somewhere, I’m certain.

‘We’re also taking a close look at Sleder, and we hope that Sir William’s team in Moscow is going to come up with something. Other than that, Mr Ross, we’ll just have to sit on our pert little bottoms, and wait.’

Chapter 12

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