On this early Monday evening he could see ‘normal people’ – civilians, as he still thought of them – all heading home from work. Despite the current crisis Luke knew that most of Whitehall would have emptied out by now – it was worse on a Friday, when places like the MoD main building were practically ghost towns after 5 p.m. And what exactly did he, Luke Carlton, have to look forward to? Another awkward evening with Elise and all those unanswered questions about what Hugo Squires was doing, getting so cosy in their flat. They had made no plans for this week, mostly because Luke could give her no guarantee he wasn’t going to be working late into the night. Or jumping on to a plane to somewhere cold and dangerous. Elise had already told him she would be staying on for drinks with friends after work this evening. That was fine by him. He’d go to the gym, give himself a beasting on the free weights, cook up some carbs and get in an early night.

‘Knock knock.’ He turned to see Jenny Li standing in the open door, her hand resting on the frame.

‘Oh, hi,’ he said warily. What now? This was the second case he had worked on with Jenny and it had only increased his professional respect for her and her encyclopaedic knowledge of CBRN. But, my God, the woman was a machine: she never stopped working. Was she about to inform him they were going to have to pull an all-nighter?

‘So …’ She flashed him a smile. ‘I just came to see how you were holding up. You know, given everything that happened in Lithuania.’

His hand went instinctively to his left side, where he’d sustained that heavy blow in the Lithuanian police cell. It still hurt to the touch, but he was getting used to it. ‘I’m in shock!’ Luke joked. ‘She cares!’

‘Don’t push it, Luke Carlton,’ she replied, with another smile. ‘We both know I’ve done you a favour and kept most of that stuff in the police station out of my contact report. Otherwise you can bet your pension that HR would have you spending the next ten days on some psych-evaluation programme.’

‘And we wouldn’t want that,’ Luke said emphatically. He was enjoying this exchange, some light relief at last after the unrelenting tension, both at work and at home.

‘No, we would not. So …’ she glanced at her feet ‘… I think we could both do with a drink, don’t you?’ She looked up, questioningly. ‘Unless, of course, you have plans?’