LUKE RECOGNIZED HIM immediately. God knew he’d studied the man’s file for long enough. And you wouldn’t forget that face. High cheekbones, intense dark eyes with sagging bags of loose skin beneath them, a lifelong smoker’s upper lip, betrayed by all those tiny vertical lines between his nostrils and his mouth, and a long aquiline nose.

‘Colonel Petrov,’ he returned the GRU officer’s greeting. You piece of shit, Colonel Petrov, placing a photograph of my girlfriend beside my bed like that. ‘Good to meet you,’ he added, through gritted teeth. Stay professional, get the job done. The Russian nodded curtly, looking him and Jenny up and down, then said something in Russian and waited. A young man in glasses rushed up, exchanged a few words with the colonel and then, slightly out of breath, translated his words in a pronounced American accent.

‘The colonel welcomes you to Moscow,’ said the interpreter. ‘He apologizes that he does not speak much English. Please, if you could follow this way for the briefing.’ He pointed towards the round steel building.

In silence they were led through the entrance and into the atrium, with its giant bat emblem on the marble floor, the GRU’s answer to the CIA’s iconic seal at Langley, with its bald eagle and sixteen-point compass. Guards stood stiffly to attention, staring straight ahead and saluting as their party went past. For Luke and Jenny there were no formalities: everyone in the building seemed to know who they were and why they were there. Luke watched as barriers were lifted and men stood aside. Then it was through a glass door and along a corridor where every door was firmly closed except the last.

‘Pozhaluysta,’ said Colonel Petrov, gesturing for them to walk through it. ‘Please.’ It was the first word he had spoken since the car park. In single file they went into a lecture room that looked like any other in the world, but for one thing: the large blue circular emblem on the wall, emblazoned with the sinister black silhouette of the bat. Beneath that was a motto, in Russian and in English: ‘Bыше только звезды!’ ‘Only Stars are Above Us!’ Luke and Jenny took their seats at the large, central table, as instructed, while an orderly came in bearing a tray of steaming glasses of tea and a plate piled with some sort of ring-shaped biscuit.