‘We do.’ Khan indicated the ginger-haired young man next to him in a green cardigan, wearing spectacles that Luke thought were just slightly too big for his face. ‘Damian here has something I’d like you to hear. He’s just joined us on secondment from Cheltenham and is helping process the raw CX intel coming in from all our overseas stations.’

Damian cleared his throat, looked up from a notepad in front of him and glanced nervously at Khan before launching in. ‘Right. So, yes, our station chief in Oslo has been in contact with our Norwegian partners, the NIS. They have a SIGINT ship, the Marjata – I’m not sure I’ve pronounced that right. It’s on-post just off Svalbard where the outbreak has occurred.’ SIGINT. Signals Intelligence. The big ugly rival to HUMINT, human intelligence. The Americans loved it; plenty of people on this side of the Atlantic were wary of it. Luke had already spent long enough in MI6 to know that some in the Service considered it to pose an existential threat to their jobs. Well, the reasoning went, if you could hack into someone’s phone or their encrypted comms and steal their secrets, why bother risking someone’s life by sending in an agent? There was a good reason why GCHQ’s headcount had risen a great deal faster than MI6’s had in recent years. But, no, the head honchos in Whitehall had decided there was still a need for solid, old-fashioned human spying: finding, recruiting and exploiting people on the inside with access to the secrets Britain needed. Luke reckoned he might still be in his job for a few more years. That was if he didn’t screw it up.

‘The Marjata,’ continued Damian, ‘picked up a burst transmission coming out of Barentsburg two days ago.’ He stopped there, as if waiting for Luke to catch up. Luke glanced round the room, but was met by knowing stares. Clearly everyone else in the room had already heard this. Now he had the distinct feeling he was arriving late to this party.

‘And?’ said Luke, thinking, Just get to the point, will you?

‘Well, Barentsburg is to all intents and purposes a Russian colony on Norwegian-administered territory in the Arctic,’ Damian replied defensively, checking his notes as he spoke. ‘GCHQ are still working on the transcript, but … from what’s been decrypted so far, the conclusion is …’ He paused, as if waiting for a green light to proceed.

Oh, for God’s sake, Luke thought, you’re not announcing the next winner of X Factor, just get on with it.

But it was Sid Khan who finished the sentence for him. MI6’s director of International Counter-Terrorism folded his hands, leaned forward on the table and looked Luke straight in the eye. Gone were the habitual bonhomie and the casual slang. He spoke slowly and deliberately.