‘I can’t!’ she said, and her eyes began to well with tears. ‘Don’t you see? I told my superior to go to hell. I love you, Paul, more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone, and I want us to start again. To forget this.’ She stood up and walked towards me. ‘I thought at first not to tell you, just to ask that we leave this place, with no explanations. But I don’t want any secrets between us, Paul, none at all. Don’t you see? I had to tell you.’ She let her arms open, beckoning me. ‘Please.’

I looked at her and part of me wanted more than anything to take a step forward. But that, I knew somewhere deep in the core of me, was weakness, and the kind of immature sentimentality that had led me into this situation. Without looking at her, I told her to leave. She refused at first, continuing to plead with me to listen to her. But I had detached myself, and after a few minutes she saw it. She ran from the room, and I listened dispassionately to the sound of her sobs echoing down the corridor. Then, taking great care not to lean on my wound, I manoeuvred my way down from the bed and started dressing.

It was my first taste of fresh air in a long while, but I hardly noticed it. I stopped thinking about Anna’s betrayal of me and started focusing on what it meant. She knew about Sacrosanct - and, presumably, so did her handler in Burgdorf. Father had said in his letter that he would continue the operation for a few more weeks. If he had done so from the same location, as seemed likely, he could be in great danger.

As I started heading for the house, a terrible thought occurred to me. Anna’s allegation that Father had mounted a rogue operation and was running around murdering Russians was clearly fantasy, but she had still known a great deal about the operation: the name Meier, for instance. Only two other people had access to that information: Pritchard and Father - and Pritchard had left months earlier. Perhaps Father had risked venturing into the Soviet Zone, and been taken into custody. Under interrogation, he could have revealed Pritchard’s and my involvement, and even our locations. Pritchard was surrounded by commandos in the French Zone, so they wouldn’t pursue him, but I was alone, and injured. Anna had been assigned as my nurse a few days after I had entered the sanatorium - perhaps the idea for her to recruit me had stemmed from knowledge they had gained from questioning Father.