‘She’s got some ambition, that girl, not to say a fair degree of brass bloody neck.’ The waiter brought his red wine and he took a healthy swig. ‘Well, you may be encouraged to hear that they’ve been following me also.’

‘You?’

‘Don’t look so surprised. If you are a suspect, then I must be, too. They appear to have assigned me their least experienced team. I spotted them as soon as we left the hospital and I assured them that my wife was dying and I would be unlikely to stray far from home until she had departed to the other side.’ He took another sip of his wine.

‘I could murder a smoke,’ Kate said. ‘I’m not sure what’s happening to me.’

‘You look how I feel, so I’m not surprised.’ He glanced at his watch once more. ‘I spoke to Andrew Blaine in Moscow this morning and I had a long conversation with Ian. None of our sources have picked up the rumours of Vasily Durov’s demise inside Moscow Centre, though those we have managed to contact acknowledge they’ve not personally seen him for some time.’

‘That’s hardly news, given how reclusive he is.’

‘Exactly. I’ve spoken to the foreign secretary again. She’s digging her heels in, adamant she’s not going to write that letter unless we can give her greater reassurance that what Mikhail says about the changing of the guard in Moscow is true.’

‘That’ll take time we don’t have.’

‘Have you heard from your friend Sergei?’

Sir Alan’s blue eyes were on her now. She thought about lying to him, but rapidly changed her mind: this was neither the time nor the place. ‘Yes and no,’ she said.

‘Meaning?’

‘He did contact me. Just something very innocent.’ She got out her phone and found the texts. ‘“How are you?” I replied I was good and was he in London? He answered, “No, at home in St Petersburg. Be good to see you sometime.” I sent a message back and never got an answer.’

Sir Alan was looking out of the window. ‘I’m guessing you received the message in Berlin?’

‘Yes.’

‘Have you had any contact with him since then?’

‘I tried a couple more times and gave up when I didn’t get an answer. I have enough on my plate without wondering about someone I used to like.’ Kate realized that was more information than she’d needed to share.

‘Would you still say his motives for that first tip-off about the meeting on the Empress in Istanbul were personal?’