All this time her special adviser was discreetly trying to get her attention. When she finally succeeded, she handed the foreign secretary a tablet with a screenshot displayed. The minister put her spectacles back on and paused to read it. Suddenly her shoulders slumped and all the energy and verve seemed to vanish from her voice. ‘Oh, bloody hell,’ she said quietly.

38

Vilnius, Lithuania

Friday, 11 March, 0904hrs GMT, 1204hrs local

‘AH, THANK GOD!’ Luke sprang up from the chair in his solitary cell with such force that it fell backwards on to the stone floor with a metallic clatter. Framed in the open doorway, Jenny Li was accompanied by a guard with a bunch of jangling keys, and to Luke she had never looked lovelier. He felt like giving her a massive hug, but instead he just stood there, feeling a wave of immense tiredness wash over him.

‘Sorry it took a while,’ she said, jerking her head ever so slightly towards the man with the keys. ‘This took quite a bit of sorting out, I can tell you. I’ve been up half the night. Had to get the ambassador to wake up the interior minister in the end.’ She went up to Luke and inspected his bruised face, placing the soft palm of her hand on his cheek. It was the kindest, gentlest thing he had ever known her to do.

‘Looks like you’ve really been through it,’ Jenny said. ‘Here.’ She handed him a bulging black bin bag. ‘There’s a set of clean clothes in there, plus your phone, wallet and passport. You can change at the safe house.’

‘We have a safe house?’ he asked. There were a dozen other things he wanted to ask her, but they could wait until they got well clear of the police station.

‘We do now. I’ll fill you in on the way.’

The British Embassy car took them northwards, through dark woods on the edge of the capital where the weak March sun flickered through the bare branches as they sped towards the Old Town centre of Vilnius. Sitting in the back, Luke leaned forward and started to wrestle himself out of his jacket.

‘Here,’ she said, ‘let me give you a hand with that.’ Again, he was surprised at her compassion. This was an altogether different Jenny Li from the one he’d been working with up until now.

‘All right,’ he said, turning to face her. ‘How much can you tell me?’ He tilted his head questioningly towards their driver up front. Jenny understood what it meant.

‘Yes, he’s been developed vetted,’ she said. ‘Been with the embassy almost since independence. Look, I’ll give you the full version when we’re indoors, but here’s the gist of it. You won’t be surprised to hear it’s your friend Kadunov behind this.’

‘That fuckwit sales director back at the factory?’

‘That one.’