‘No. I’m not having that. We’ll set the meet point.’

‘I tried to insist, but he said it was his backyard and they would pick the venue.’

‘Then tell him different. We have the whip hand.’

Kate could tell Ian was trying to show off to Suzy, but she wasn’t in a mood to indulge him. ‘We have to be careful. We don’t know what their agenda is, we don’t know what they’re dealing with from their side, and we don’t know who else they have been talking to—’

‘What do you mean?’

‘If you were them, wouldn’t you have cast the net wider than just us? If we delay, or prevaricate, or muck them about in any way, there’s a chance they’ll bolt and pull the lever somewhere else.’

‘Doesn’t that sound a lot like the operation that went so badly wrong in Berlin?’

‘Yes, but we don’t have a choice.’

‘We’re not the ones trying to escape a lifetime in a Russian prison, or worse. I’d feel a lot more comfortable if we were setting the parameters.’ Ian shook his head to underline his disapproval. ‘Have you discussed this with Danny?’

‘Not yet. I was going to talk to him when we get back to the hotel.’ Danny and his team were staying at the Marriott, just a short walk down Rustaveli Avenue. They’d come in via Istanbul earlier in the day.

‘All right. Julie will go with you.’ He was pointing at Kate. ‘I want both surveillance teams deployed. I’ll play quarterback.’ Ian rolled up his sleeves. ‘What about the plane?’ It was directed at Suzy.

‘It arrives the day after tomorrow. We’ve told the Tbilisi authorities we’re picking up a film location crew. We’ve filed a flight plan direct to London for eight p.m., but we can change that. We can push back by about twenty-four hours, but after that we start to have issues with the pilot.’

‘What have you told Sarah?’

This was directed at Julie, who had been instructed to liaise with Sarah Creaven, SIS’s Tbilisi station chief. She left her reply just long enough to make her insolence felt. ‘That we need to extract someone and it’s conceivable there may be issues, but we didn’t want to inform the Georgians and hoped it would pass off smoothly.’

‘Did she guess?’

‘I don’t know. I didn’t ask her.’ Kate nudged Julie under the table.

‘Does Mikhail know there’s a time constraint on the plane?’ Ian asked Kate.

‘Not yet.’

‘You should tell him.’

Kate wasn’t enjoying being given direct instructions on what had been her show from start to finish. ‘They’re in a hurry to get to London. I don’t think they need to be told that we’re keen to get it over and done with too.’