Pritchard smiled at him generously. ‘So’s half the Service, John.’

‘I’m not,’ said Farraday. ‘I was at Oxford. You were, too, weren’t you, Paul?’ I nodded. ‘And you, William?’

Osborne pushed his glasses onto his nose prissily. ‘Manchester. Look, we don’t know where Chief is at the moment. But I don’t think we can jump to the conclusion that he’s a double agent simply because he’s missed our regular Monday meeting.’

‘I’m not concluding anything,’ said Farraday. ‘But surely we would all agree that no one - not even Chief - can be above suspicion in a case like this. That, after all, is how traitors survive.’

Osborne drummed his fingers against his glass, and we all watched him. ‘With all due respect,’ he said, finally, ‘I’ve known Chief for a great many years and he has never given me a moment to doubt his integrity or patriotism. If the man has been acting, he’s the best bloody double that ever existed.’

He’d meant it to be a throwaway comment, but as the silence stretched out, it took on an unintended resonance, and he began twiddling his thumbs.

‘As I see it,’ said Farraday, splaying his fingers out on the table as though he were about to start playing a piano concerto, ‘there are only two options. Either Slavin’s a KGB plant designed to get us running around for a traitor who doesn’t exist or he’s real and the traitor does exist. Chief has seemingly disappeared, and Paul has found the file on this woman who he says was killed but apparently wasn’t, and whom Slavin just happens to mention as his source for the entire house of cards. Now if—’

‘If I could just stop you there,’ Osborne cut in, and his usual Billy Bunter tone had been replaced by overt aggression. ‘I must insist that we wait for Chief to be present before we start flinging accusations around.’

‘As you wish,’ said Farraday. ‘But this may be the last chance we have for an open discussion on this. Once Chief gets here - presuming he hasn’t done a flit to Moscow - any such talk will be next to impossible on account of his position.’

‘Nobody seems to have taken his position into much consideration, ’ said Pritchard. ‘It’s surely far more likely that the Russians or someone else have taken advantage of his abysmal security set-up and snatched him. I would suggest we give Barnes some support to search the area properly, and put out an alert to all ports just in case.’

‘Should we circulate the names of Chief’s known aliases?’ asked Quiney. ‘Or is that too delicate?’

‘Far too delicate,’ said Osborne, before Farraday could open his mouth.