Kelly stood at her office window and stared out. She’d looked up Lord Allerdale’s voting history for the House of Lords and sure enough, he’d voted against any progressive homosexual legislation. Next she’d called Alexandros Skarparis in Cyprus to inform him that two intelligence officers were on standby to travel to his villa and escort him to Akrotiri military base, where he and his mother could board an RAF flight to Brize Norton.

‘It’s the only way,’ she said. ‘We can protect your mother.’

That sold him, and he told her the location of the villa. She wasted no time and informed her contact at Ayios Nikolaos intelligence wing, avoiding going through the MoD.

Matt would be arriving soon, and Eden House was the last place she wanted to be. He’d called from the train to give her an update. Christopher Slater had left the city for the weekend, and had been tailed to his pad in Surrey. Sebastian Montague-Roland was attending meetings in London until eleven this evening, but had agreed to speak over the phone to detectives at five o’clock. He’d been curt and warned them of harassment. Another army of lawyers had descended on the switchboard at Hendon and had informed the SIO that for Mr Montague-Roland to be interviewed – informally or otherwise – they’d need to charge him with a crime. They couldn’t. Yet.

Kelly was knackered and dejected, and wanted to take the afternoon off with Johnny. She wished she was in a position to accept his valiant offer to rough up Matt, but knew it was a chivalric gesture only.

Rob came excitedly into her office holding a printout. It was a welcome diversion.

‘I’ve got the scientific formulas back from George’s USB.’

‘And?’

‘It sets out a model for a cure for addiction.’

‘Isn’t that what they were working on in the Ravensword lab anyway? Addiction, mental illness and so on.’

Rob looked deflated. ‘It’s not the same at all.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘I’m sorry. Come on, tell me then.’ The apology was genuine. She realised she was wound up like a coil over Matt arriving, and she’d been short with her colleague.

Rob took a pen and a large piece of paper from a board, and began to explain to her how George was working on the theory that addiction wasn’t a disease or a condition, but a miswiring as a direct result of the toxins ingested, effectively turning the whole theory on its head.

‘Why does that matter?’

‘Because the whole world wants us to believe that it’s an affliction with no cure.’

‘Are you telling me that George actually found a cure?’

‘That’s what the scientist who translated this told me. She was very excited. However, after the initial euphoria died down, she told me that it would be bad news for the company. Then she became cagey.’