I thought I’d have a hard time getting him to talk, but once I told him what I knew already, he just caved there and then and told me everything. It was like pulling the plug out of a dam; I couldn’t have stopped him talking if I’d tried.

Do you remember Wallace was ‘interrogated’ by the Patriots a while back for thieving alternate technology? That’s when his drinking got serious. I guess it’s no surprise that he’d been harbouring a great deal of resentment over that whole episode.

That, he explained, was when he decided to get even.

Now, Wallace is a smart guy. There’s no doubt about that. He’s hellishly good with computers, and a lot of the time he winds up getting put in charge of mission logistics and other stuff like programming our reconnaissance drones. Because of that, he explained, the Authority frequently gave him access to otherwise restricted computers inside the base compound. By then he had already figured out that some parts of their computer network were heavily encrypted. To a guy like Wallace, that’s a challenge, not a barrier.

He eventually worked out that to get inside those restricted sectors, he’d need access to a special kind of alphanumeric key. One time when he was up at the base, he learned by accident that this key got changed once every week. Wallace knew that, if he could get hold of an up-to-date key, maybe he’d be able to find something among all those restricted files that he could use to hurt the Patriots, and Greenbrooke in particular.

He bided his time and took care to cover his tracks when he explored the unsecured parts of the network. He came across a text file somebody had left in the wrong place that proved to be a set of security guidelines. From this he learned that every six months a new set of keys was generated in advance, printed up into three separate physical documents and distributed to three high-ranking members of the Authority’s staff; one went to Mort Bramnik, one to Major Howes and the last to the Patriots – meaning, in this case, Agent Greenbrooke.

The guidelines further stated that these three printed documents also contained the complete set of transfer coordinates known to the Authority. Naturally, Wallace assumed that this included the coordinates for those alternates we can all expect to one day retire to if we choose. The guidelines went on to say that Bramnik kept his copy of the document on him at all times, in a locked briefcase, carried either by himself or his deputy assistant Kip Mayer.