He put on his jacket and left the room. Mikhail stopped the video. ‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘Not pleasant, but you can see there is no doubt it is him.’

‘How can we be sure you haven’t faked it?’

‘Don’t be absurd.’

‘We both know it’s possible.’

‘Not with that kind of quality. Ask your experts.’

Kate nodded. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost,’ Mikhail said.

She glanced up at him. ‘It’s a lot worse than that, isn’t it?’

‘No, it is not. It is really very simple. I am offering you a quick and easy solution. No one can doubt that he is the man in this footage, or that its contents don’t amount to a resigning matter, so all you have to do is get myself, my family and my father into Britain with this computer intact and then you can release the pictures and it will all be over.’

‘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.