Luke was surprised at his abruptness, but he shrugged, turning to Jenny, who seemed to be studying the man. Somehow, even in these chilly Eastern European spring temperatures, the lawyer had managed to acquire a sheen of sweat across his forehead. ‘I mean,’ he continued, a sly smile spreading across his face, ‘you can play it cool and British if you like. But let us be honest, you did not get what you came for, am I right?’

‘Maybe,’ Luke said non-committally. Now he was certain: it was definitely no coincidence running into Janulis in here. Luke was intrigued.

Janulis leaned forward again, lowering his voice even further, forcing them to draw closer to his shiny face. ‘So …’ he paused, drawing it out for dramatic effect ‘… it is possible that I have the thing you came for.’ Luke flashed a look at Jenny, but her face was impassive, giving nothing away.

‘Okay. Can you be a bit more specific?’ said Luke.

‘Be more what?’

‘I said, “be more specific”,’ Luke replied. ‘What is it you’re offering, exactly?’ Suddenly he found himself experiencing an uncomfortable flashback. He was a rookie trainee at the Fort on Britain’s south coast, going through his paces on the SIS agent-running course. A course in which, during one exercise, he, Luke, had completely blown it on his first attempt to recruit ‘an agent’. The man posing as the agent had asked Luke to spell out exactly what he wanted him to steal from state archives. It was a trap and Luke had fallen right into it, showing his hand much too soon and finding himself slammed up against the wall by a couple of goons. It didn’t matter a damn to Luke that at least half the others on that course had made exactly the same mistake. He had never got over the failure. Which was just the lesson his instructors had wanted him to learn.

‘I can offer you …’ Janulis was looking slowly around the café now, even though no one was paying them the slightest attention ‘… I can offer you everything you came for. Sales records, names, shipment dates, everything. All on a single flash drive. And I don’t ask any questions.’

Luke regarded him with an even stare. He guessed that the man in front of him probably had little love for his boss, and for good reason, but Darius Janulis did not look the kind of individual to drop a gift like this into their laps for nothing. There would be a price to pay, and he guessed they were about to learn what it was.

‘All I ask in return,’ Janulis continued, with a smile, ‘is just fifty thousand euros, in cash.’ He said this casually, as if it were a day-to-day commonplace exchange. ‘I am sure this amount is small change for your organization.’