‘I’d say so, yeah. And that article in the press. I’d say that was planted by MI6 to try and stop Bello’s people coming for Harry again.’

‘Broadcasting his memory loss? Clever. It was a brave thing for Harry to do.’

‘It was bloody nuts.’ Jameson scoffed the last of his cake. ‘I was right though. This was all about his job.’

‘No. This was all about his character: his guilt at what happened to his sister and her child, his empathy for those in crisis, and his willingness to sacrifice his own happiness to ensure the safety of the people he cares about.’

‘But if he wasn’t in that job, he wouldn’t have been on that helicopter and he wouldn’t have met that girl. None of this happens without the job.’

‘But he wasn’t the only officer to come across Alina on that mission. His character is the differentiator.’

‘Let’s agree to disagree then.’

‘There’s no such thing as reality—’

‘Only perceptions of it,’ finished Jameson.

‘And that’s what keeps us in work.’

Jameson sat back and stretched. ‘When did Seraphine come into the picture though? That’s what I want to know.’

Bloom picked up her notebook and reviewed what she’d written. ‘Abdul Sharif wouldn’t have been the logical successor to Jacob Bello unless he’d been with them for a while. If Seraphine was involved in putting him there, she’d have known about the search for Alina and then Harry from the beginning. I think when she discovered Karene had asked for our help, she couldn’t stop herself interfering, and then she spotted an opportunity to turn it to her advantage. She only took Harry so that she could kill Bello. Harry was lucky she liked him or he might have disappeared too.’

‘You shouldn’t have invited her in. We gave her access to Harry.’

‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. As soon as I knew that she was sending Karene emails, I had to speak to her. You can’t ignore a woman like Seraphine. If her eyes are on you it’s better to find out what she’s looking at.’

‘She almost got you killed.’

‘But she didn’t.’

‘Well …’ said Jameson, finishing his coffee. ‘Thank you for coming to my rescue when you thought I was in danger.’

‘Does that mean I’m forgiven?’

‘It means, we should start over.’

Bloom sat back and smiled at him. ‘Let’s start over then.’

106

They couldn’t see her, but she could see them. She watched them through the window while she spoke to Abdul on the phone. She was a pretty good lip-reader so she could follow their conversation easily enough, even though she could only see Augusta’s lips. She wished they were sitting the other way around. She liked Marcus’s lips better.