‘Fromage,’ she murmurs. The command to smile turns us briefly into giggling schoolgirls again, and I take a couple of extra shots before pulling us both to safety. These are images I shall treasure until the day I die, but little did I know on that clifftop just how important they’d become.

SIX

We return to the coastal path. By now the rain is heavier, the path sticky with mud, but Christianne obviously knows these parts intimately. She leads me to a gap in the fence, and we wait for a couple of golfers to finish teeing off before we head across the fairway, and then back towards a copse of trees and a row of houses beyond. The closer we get to the houses, the grander they look. When Christianne steals a glance at her watch, I ask her why she doesn’t rely on her smartphone for time checks.

‘Because I haven’t got one.’

‘No smartphone?’

‘No phone at all. Not to carry around.’

I blink. In my world, this is unheard of.

‘Any particular reason?’

‘Yes. For one thing, I’ve always got by perfectly well without a phone in my pocket. And if you really want the truth, I can’t afford the credit. Even when they give the bloody things away, you’re still paying the earth.’

I nod. I’ve never given a second thought to my Vodafone unlimited data plan, but that’s irrelevant. I need to find out more.

‘Does this extend to computers? Laptops? All that?’

‘Au contraire. Andy’s always been on top of the IT stuff, still is. He was using a computer way back to log the pattern of the mines he was lifting, and when we were in Angola he even came up with a programme of his own. He had a phrase for it I always forget – predictive something – and it seemed to work. He always said that particular minefields, the way they’re laid, tell you everything you need to know about the bad guys. Crack the way they think, and the job takes care of itself.’

This sounds impressive. I’ve been thinking about my last conversation with Rosa, my agent. Pavel may well have buried a script for safekeeping, and although I still have his MacBook with the clever software he used to dictate stuff, I have no idea how to disinter this unseen treasure. Whether I can trust this challenge to McFaul is doubtful, but I nevertheless store the thought away for later.

We’re nearly on top of the houses now, and Christianne has checked her watch for a second time.

‘Where are we going?’ I ask her.

‘There.’ She points at the biggest of the nearby houses.

‘Why?’

‘I want you to meet someone. His name’s Sir William. Sir William Penny. We’re expected for lunch.’

‘Lunch?’ This sounds like an ambush. Christianne ignores my alarm.