A long silence. The man’s eyes narrowed. He removed his spectacles, studied them, then put them on again. ‘You’re risking my life too, telling me this. Who is your contact?’

Maybe he should be brave. Maybe he should risk a Gestapo interrogation after all. He could rely on his cover story, and if that failed, at least he could protect Agent Osric and Agent Horatio. They were more important than him. He’d sacrifice himself. But then he thought of his son and realised he had to do everything he could to escape.

‘Hanne Jakobsen – Vicepolitiinspektor Hanne Jakobsen.’

The policeman leaned forward in shock. ‘Hanne? Hanne is involved with you?’ His hands were shaking. He closed his notebook and opened it again, clearly unsure of what to do or how to react.

‘Would you know how to contact her?’

‘She’s two floors above us.’

After that, the Gestapo made another mistake. The policeman went into the corridor and in poor German informed the waiting Gestapo officer that there was a minor problem and he needed to get a colleague to sort it out. It shouldn’t take too long. They wouldn’t want the paperwork to be incorrect.

‘Hurry up,’ had been the response. And then the Gestapo officer decided it had taken long enough already and he was going to get something to eat. ‘It’s twelve fifteen now. I’ll be back at one to collect him: paperwork or no paperwork!’

Once the Gestapo officer left, Hanne was summoned. She seemed remarkably calm when she entered the room. Certainly she shot Prince a disapproving look, but it was more like a parental look of disappointment rather than one of anger.

‘Give me a minute, please, Jens,’ she said to her colleague. Once the policeman had left, she sat opposite Prince. ‘So what happened?’

He explained.

‘And it couldn’t have been Agent Horatio informing them?’

‘I can’t possibly see how – he’d have had no idea I was following him from the other side of the canal. And the checkpoint was a random one; the queue was already quite long when I joined it.’

She nodded. ‘Nonetheless, it seems the name Jesper Holm was on a watch list and you match a description they had. You must have been betrayed. We have to get you out of here.’ She chewed a nail and looked at her watch. ‘We have half an hour at the most. Let’s see what we can do. I can’t tell you how fortunate it is Jens was questioning you. He’s a friend and I trust him. I can’t say that of everyone here.’

He was left on his own for five minutes, still handcuffed to the chair. When Hanne returned, it was with Jens and two uniformed Danish policemen. The handcuffs were released and Hanne explained the plan.