‘Mike Brogan, CIA Section Chief in Brussels with responsibility for counter-terror liaison in France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. He asked me to help you out with IT, phone interrogation, communications, and shit like that. He loves you because you pulled his ass outta the fire a few years ago. His words, not mine, by the way.’ Her smile widened. ‘Anything else, Tom, or can I relax? I’d love a cup of tea. That’s what you English do, isn’t it, in times of stress?’ Her English was faultless, with a mixed German and American accent.

‘I’m not English,’ Tom said, tucking the Sig in his waistband.

‘I know. You were a Bosnian refugee. Orphaned in London, brought up in Scotland, army at nineteen, and then police. You’ve been a bit busy, I hear.’ She smiled once more. ‘Don’t worry, Tom. I can find out anything about anyone; it’s a gift and why the CIA pays me.’ Her smile widened a little more. ‘Now, how about that tea? I can see a kettle from here.’ She nodded at the desk.

‘How do you like it?’

‘Just milk.’

As Tom made the tea he asked, ‘So how did you end up working for the CIA?’

‘I don’t, officially. In reality, it was that or they’d put my ass in jail. They caught me looking at the CIA mainframe when I was younger. I just wanted to see if I could breach their security. I got in quite easily, but in those days I wasn’t good enough to get out again without getting caught. They traced me to my parents’ house in Germany and they were so impressed that, rather than jail, they offered me a job.’

Tom stood to make the tea, tipping a mini capsule of milk in each. Handing Pet a cup of the scalding tea, he said, ‘Pet?’ a quizzical look on his face.

‘Petra. But that sounds like a dog’s name.’

‘So you decided on ‘Pet’ instead?’

‘I know, it’s supposed to be ironic,’ she smiled. She sipped her tea and pulled a face. ‘I hate UHT milk. Why can’t hotels do proper milk?’

‘No idea.’

Pet smiled again, looking directly at him with eyes that sparkled like jewels. ‘So what do you need, Tom?’

‘I need a locked iPhone interrogating and some photographs putting through facial recognition software for a start. Can you do that?’

Pet gave him an almost offended look. ‘Is that all? That’s child’s play.’

‘For starters, we’ll see after the phone has been looked at. I managed to get a brief look before it locked, and it seemed all the history had been erased.’

‘I doubt it’s fully erased. I can probably recover most of it, so let’s start with that. I’m the CIA’s most prized deniable asset.’ She smiled at her own self-confidence.