Tom made his way back home, a briefing for the next day planned with his cover officer to iron out the plan around his legend. He would need to be ready for any questioning by the Branko brothers, especially as they were his countrymen. His interest in the assignment was high, especially as one of them was a solicitor. The fact that he had limited information didn’t concern him; too much intelligence could be a dangerous thing and could cause unnatural reactions when deployed. If, for instance, he was told that one of the brothers always concealed a knife in his sock, it may cause him to react if a leg was innocently scratched. In many ways, it was safer not to know: if you could improvise, you could generally cope. Tom was confident in his ability to think on his feet; he’d had plenty of practise.

He got changed into his training gear and beasted himself with a punishing exercise routine for a full hour to clear his mind.

6

The gym was in a grubby Islington side street, just a stone’s throw from Angel Tube station. Tom approached it with the informant, Ivan, a small, nervous young man in his twenties with sharp features and a wispy moustache and beard. He spoke good English, but they conversed in Serbian to maintain Tom’s cover. They had already spent a couple of hours with Liam, the cover officer, coming up with a cover story which they’d deliberately kept very straightforward.

‘I’m, a simple man, Tom. You know my brain won’t let me come up with a complicated cover story, so it won’t,’ Liam had said, exaggerating his sardonic Northern Irish accent. He was a funny man with a gentle, self-deprecating line in humour. He was very sharp, though, which contrasted with his rather hang-dog expression, messy greying hair and poor taste in clothing.

They agreed that Tom and Ivan’s cover story was that they’d met in a pub and got chatting once they realised they were both Serbians. Tom was going to be known as Tomo Kovac, a refugee orphan from Sarajevo who had been more recently living in Glasgow, where he had done some security and door work before making his way to London to look for something new. He had in reality spent plenty of time in Glasgow and knew the city well, meaning that he could deal with any questions they may throw at him. He would present himself as being a bit dodgy and open to any offers that came his way.