‘You honestly think it’s going to be that straightforward?’

‘Why not? They say the foreign secretary is an honest woman. As long as you don’t make the mistake of consulting anyone else, I don’t see why it should be complicated.’

‘How do you want to proceed?’

‘Do we have your promise of asylum?’

Kate hesitated a moment too long. ‘Yes.’

‘Signed off by the foreign secretary, and with the stipulations we made, we are afforded your meaningful protection and are allowed to keep all our assets in the West?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where is the letter?’

‘I’ll have to get it. We—’

‘We can take this shit anywhere!’ The tension Mikhail had been doing his best to hide was starting to show. ‘And embarrass the hell out of you in the process.’

‘I said yes.’

‘I need a letter from the foreign secretary.’

‘I’ll get it.’

‘You should have brought it with you!’

‘Come on, Mikhail. She was never going to authorize that until she knew the material was genuine.’

He slammed the computer shut and put it back into his bag. ‘Well, now you have seen it.’

Kate stood. She walked to the window. She went to her jacket for a cigarette and offered the packet to Mikhail, who waved her away airily. She lit up, if only to give herself a few moments to think. ‘We have a deal,’ she said. ‘I want to know how to proceed.’

He watched her, hands thrust deep into his pockets. ‘I don’t know if we should trust you.’

‘Yes, you do. That’s why you came to me in the first place.’

‘Don’t be so sure of yourself.’

‘We have to lay our hands on this material. You know we do. So let’s get on with it.’

He watched her smoking, his gaze unblinking. She wished she wasn’t standing before him in a dressing-gown, hair unkempt, but perhaps that had been part of his calculation.

‘My father’s family was originally from Georgia, as I am sure you know. We still have a home in Tbilisi and another in Kazbegi, just over the border. He thinks he can get himself, my wife and son there. So that is where we will meet. The Russians have the commercial airport covered, so you will need a private plane on standby to come in and pick us up – or, better still, to remain on the ground until we are ready.’

‘When?’

‘This week. You can send me the letter from your foreign secretary tonight – tomorrow at the latest. I will find a way to show it to my father. You will need to unfreeze the assets you have seized in the UK, including the house in Knightsbridge, where we will have to live. The letter will need to confirm we are free to move around as we please in both Europe and America.’

‘As you know, that’s not in our gift.’

‘You can deliver it. We will come with this video and incontrovertible evidence of the money we have paid to your prime minister over the course of the time he has worked for us – more than thirty million pounds in all – along with a global paper trail, which will allow you to seize the cash and arrest those who have helped launder it.’