Her voice had a coldness that cut right through me. Even with everything that was happening, something told me not to let her know he was dead, and I shook my head, then answered, ‘No’ aloud when I realized that she still wasn’t looking at me, but remained fixed in her position at the window. With them that walk against me, is my sun. Only she wasn’t walking: she was staying put, waiting for the PM.

‘Don’t tell me you still intend to go through with this,’ I said. She didn’t reply, just kept on looking through the sight. I wanted to lunge across the room and rip her away from it, force her to stand and face me and answer me. But I was too weak, so instead I just stood there, clutching my leg uselessly. More seconds passed. What was going on down there? Had the car stopped?

There was too much flooding through me, and I couldn’t slow it down or order it.

‘How did you do it?’ I asked, finally. ‘Make-up and something to stop your pulse?’ I had no idea what part of my mind had come up with the question, but another part approved. Keep her talking, get some answers, distract her. Distract yourself.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Something like that. I was one of the first - they have done it many times since.’

‘Why, Anna?’ Here was the question. Here, finally, was the question I had wanted her to answer.

She didn’t say anything for a while, and I wondered if she had heard me. Then she answered. ‘Love,’ she said simply. ‘Love of my cause.’ She lifted her head a fraction and glanced across at me, and the Anna I had known all those years ago receded once again. I searched her face desperately for the glimpse I’d had just moments before, but it was no use. ‘I am sorry I hurt you,’ she said, still talking in the same calm slow way. ‘I didn’t want to. But I knew you were one of us the first time I saw you. I could sense that you wanted to do good, that you would be a strong soldier for us. Are you still a strong soldier for us, Paul? Can you keep fighting a little longer for me?’