‘Mrs Henderson.’ Kate spun around to see a bull of a man striding across the lounge towards her. He wore blue jeans, cowboy boots and a scuffed leather jacket. He looked like a tougher, fatter George W. Bush, his hair greying at the temples. He exuded purpose, confidence, as men in his position often did. ‘Thank you for coming all this way.’

Igor Borodin had been such a remote and legendary figure in the shadowy world of espionage for so long that Kate was momentarily lost for words. Bright blue eyes scrutinized her with barely concealed curiosity. ‘You’ll need a drink,’ he said.

‘No, thank you.’

‘It wasn’t a suggestion.’ He went to the table, poured four glasses of vodka and brought them on a tray towards them. They all dutifully toasted and drank. ‘Welcome to the land of my forefathers,’ he said. He returned to the fire. ‘Sit,’ he said. That wasn’t a suggestion either. ‘What happened in London?’ he asked. It was directed at Kate. When she didn’t answer immediately, he put a booted foot on the sofa next to him and leant on his knee. ‘We are capable of reading the news.’

‘The foreign secretary authorized this operation. Then someone leaked it.’

‘Who?’

‘We don’t know yet.’

‘And then?’

‘The prime minister personally authorized that it should go ahead.’

Igor seemed surprised by that. He dropped down into the sofa, put his boot on to the long oak coffee-table and gazed into the fire. ‘Why?’

‘He’ll find a way to take control of the authentication of the video and make sure it’s pronounced a fake.’

‘And what does that mean for my son and me?’

‘Nothing. Your defection is an enormous coup for SIS in any event, so you will be safe. None of us can really be sure how the politics will play out in the end, but it won’t make any difference to you.’

‘If it is pronounced a fake, the pressure to send us back where we came from will be irresistible.’

Kate shook her head. Sometimes, even the most sophisticated of opponents were wont to underestimate the strictures of the Western democratic system, in which no amount of politics was permitted to overwhelm the law. ‘You’ll have the most expensive lawyers money can buy, which is saying something, and our courts will never send you back to Moscow.’ She glanced at Mikhail. ‘You know that.’

‘The leak compromises the operation.’

‘Strangely, it forces the prime minister into a position where he has to accept your defection.’

Igor turned to her. ‘You were very foolish to seek out your friend Sergei Malinsky. The GRU has its own spies in London. They knew you were coming.’

‘Who are their spies?’

‘If I knew the GRU’s secrets, I would not be sitting here.’

‘How do you know I came to meet Sergei?’

‘Everyone in Moscow is aware of it.’