There was only a short queue at the border crossing, but as she edged towards the barrier, Kate had only one thought: if they had put out an alert for her after discovering Sergei’s body, then her image would already be plastered up on the wall in every exit point all over Russia. Tail or no tail, was there really any chance they would let her leave?

23

23

THE BORDER GUARD either had a keen wit or no sense of irony at all. ‘Why do you want to leave Russia?’ he asked.

‘I’m sure I’ll be back,’ Kate said, though she doubted it.

‘They say it rains in Ireland all the time.’ He was a lugubrious man, in his forties or fifties, with large spectacles and cheeks like a bloodhound’s. He stared at her passport and scanned it into his computer. Kate watched the snow twist and turn in tight eddies just the other side of the barrier.

She wondered what would happen if she had to hit the accelerator and drive for her freedom. She turned around to see if Stuart was still behind her, but he had disappeared. ‘Irish?’ the guard asked, as if genuinely challenging the evidence in front of him.

‘Yes.’

‘I went to Dublin once, and Belfast.’ His English was remarkably good. ‘I don’t remember much about it.’

‘That’s often the way.’

He stared at the screen beside him. ‘What have you been doing in Russia?’

‘I was just in St Petersburg, seeing the sights.’

‘Did you go on to Moscow?’

Kate hesitated a moment too long. ‘No.’

There was a long silence. He was evidently waiting for some instruction from his computer. Kate leant closer to the windscreen and peered ahead into the gloom. They’d open fire on her if she drove for it, that’s for sure, but it was only a hundred yards at most. She looked at the guard by the barrier, his assault rifle idling at his hip.

‘You are free to go.’ The guard smiled at her. ‘Come back soon.’

‘I will,’ Kate said. The barrier went up and she drove on with a heavy sigh of relief and still more questions. It had felt as though the guard was waiting for a specific instruction but, if so, why would it have been to let her go?

Julie was waiting for her in a beaten-up old Volvo saloon just beyond the barrier. Kate didn’t get a chance to ask how long she’d been there before Julie threw her arms around her. ‘Fucking hell, Kate.’ She released her, held up her phone. ‘I had literally just decided to give you ten more minutes before I pressed the nuclear button.’

‘I’m sorry. It took a lot longer than I thought.’

‘There’s been hell to pay from London. Ian guessed the truth immediately, as did Sir Alan.’

‘It’s all right. I’ve got enough to make it worth it.’