As for himself, he was content for the moment to look after the orchids in his conservatory, and to try to put the worries of the past behind him. The cymbidiums and miltonias were coming to the end of their flowering season. Spring was approaching, and a new year would, he hoped, bring along a new lease of life. Maybe even someone to share it with. Someone normal, pleasant, loving. That above all. At fifty-five he could really do with a bit of love.

Few people really knew Gary Flynn. He made sure of that. He was friendly, but guarded. He let people speculate on the nature of his employment without ever putting them straight. But that makes sense when you’re in the intelligence service. Unless you want everyone to think you’re James Bond.

It would not have taken a first-rate sleuth to discover what this civil servant really did, not if they had put their minds to it. Some days he went to the MI5 building on Millbank, and some days he did not. When he did go there he varied his route, just to be on the safe side.

Today he went by train from his home in Winchester to Waterloo and then by bus to Millbank. It was not the shortest route but it made for variety. His open-plan office was shared with other people in the same game. He was not an ‘M’ or a ‘Q’, or even a ‘007’, but the fact that he worked where he worked, and that he saw what he saw, made him naturally cautious when it came to making friends.

And that included women. He had never had a lasting relationship. Never really wanted one. Much. It wouldn’t be fair on either of them. He was frequently away, and often on business that while not in itself risky, had risky consequences, and you couldn’t expect a woman to settle for that, could you? Better to be a free agent. And yet there were times when he wondered what it was all about. Where was he going? And would he know when he got there?

His current operation involved monitoring the activities of a Chinese diplomat suspected of smuggling illegally acquired currency out of the country. At the moment any definite proof of such activity was lacking and the source of the illicit funding was uncertain. Right now the diplomat was back home in Shanghai, but he would be returning to the UK in the next few days, intelligence suggested, and Gary would be back on the case. The next time Tan Lao Sok tried to leave the country, Gary would be standing in his way. Not that Mr Tan would know anything about it. Until the moment of truth.