Mironov was the only person anywhere, anytime, to have a fish tank in one of his homes that was the size of two Olympic swimming pools. What made the tanks astounding was what he had in it – two coelacanths, the living fossil fish found in the Indian Ocean shallows and thought to have been extinct for sixty-six million years. The man’s hobby was fossil hunting, collecting, and anything to do with the Earth’s primordial past

Cate had sent the Russian a letter containing a polite request – all included with the film she had shot in the subterranean sea recently. She’d taken a risk sending proprietary university property, but she knew it was the only way to get his attention. And after all, as her grandfather always used to say in his letters, without risk there was no reward.

“Ms Cate Granger?”

Cate swung around at her name. The young woman was exceptionally tall with perfect cheekbones and eyes that were a luminous blue. She immediately made Cate feel like an ugly duckling. Another way to intimidate guests, she thought, beginning to detest Valery Mironov already.

“Yes.” She got to her feet, smoothing her jacket. “Professor Cate Granger.”

“Of course. I’m Sonya Borashev, Mr Mironov’s personal assistant.” She held out a hand that Cate shook quickly, noticing how calloused the tall woman’s palm was. She then she motioned to the private elevator. “Mr Mironov will see you now.”

Cate nodded, swallowed and followed the woman, noticing that every item of clothing she wore was designer and immaculate. She bet the woman’s pay as an assistant outstripped Cate’s own as a tenured professor by a country mile. But was Sonya happy? Cate wondered, her mouth curving into a smile.

“Ms Borashev, Valery Mironov; can I ask where you met him?” Cate looked away, expecting Sonya Borashev’s answer to be from some professional executive pool, while she waited for her name to go up in lights on Broadway.

“I was recruited by Mironov Enterprises five years ago,” Sonya said, slowing as they approached an elevator door. She stopped and turned. “Straight from Harvard, where I was majoring in physics.”

Cate suddenly felt even smaller beside the woman. Sonya smiled briefly and then nodded to the two men standing beside the elevator, who turned and both inserted a key into an identical slot either side of the doors at the same time. The doors shushed open, the car already waiting, and Cate and Sonya stepped in. Inside it smelled of lavender, wood paneling, and the tall woman’s expensive perfume.