LINA PICKED HIM up from his hotel just before 11 p.m., her arm outstretched, holding open the back door of the cab as the engine quietly belched exhaust into the chill night air. At first Luke simply didn’t recognize her. Gone was the casual, dressed-down student look, the red scarf and the glasses. The girl budging up for him now on the back seat was transformed. Scarlet lip gloss, heavy mascara, hair pulled tightly back, black fishnet stockings and stilettos beneath a short black leather skirt.

She gave him a brief, appraising look and Luke, as usual, felt underdressed. He was wearing the same jeans he had been arrested in, no time to get them cleaned, and now, in the confined space at the back of the cab, he thought he could still smell the police cell. His mind flashed back a few years to a hot and humid night in Colombia, on his first ever mission for the Service, when he’d had to spend an evening in some dodgy nightclub in the company of a corrupt police officer on the take from the narcos. How did he keep ending up in these situations?

Lina spoke briefly to the driver and they moved off in silence, bouncing over the cobbles on the narrow backstreets in Vilnius’s historic Old Town. Despite the cold, people were sitting out at bars on Bernardinu Street, clustering around outdoor heaters or wrapping borrowed blankets around their shoulders. It would be 8 p.m. back home and Luke wondered what Elise would be up to now. After-work drinks with her friends from the art gallery? Or being wined and dined by that smoothie ex-Goldman Sachs banker Hugo, who seemed to pop up every time Luke was away on a mission? He sincerely hoped not. This was where the job, and the Service, took its toll on any relationship. Luke wasn’t complaining – they’d warned him about it during Induction – but, still, it nagged at him, prompting the unspoken question between them. How many more months could their relationship sustain this?

Outside the window the scene had changed. They had left behind the quaint, UNESCO-designated historic centre and now they were in some industrial no man’s land beside the river. Lina, who had so far stayed silent, after pointing towards the driver up front and holding a varnished nail to her lips, announced they were nearly there. Involuntarily, Luke found himself tensing for action. His left side still ached from the fight in the cell, and if things kicked off out here, he was a long way from being fighting fit.

It looked like a warehouse from the outside. Not quite derelict, but it had definitely seen better days. This was all starting to look needlessly cloak-and-dagger.