‘Well, Gilbey, I thought I’d suggested you steer clear of rockets? All this nonsense – and I didn’t know you had agents in Denmark. There’s a turn-up for the books!’ He spoke with the very faintest of accents, a hint of the Continent. Had Gilbey not known of his background, he doubted he’d have spotted it.

‘There we are then, Lord Swalcliffe.’ He’d thought about addressing him as Edward, but decided against it.

‘Meaning?’

Meaning you don’t know everything.

‘Meaning we do have agents in Denmark.’

‘I was under the impression all our agents over there had been rounded up?’

‘You’re probably thinking of the SOE, Lord Swalcliffe. Our service is perhaps more accomplished.’

‘Very well then.’ Swalcliffe paused to put on a pair of reading spectacles and open a folder in front of him. ‘One of your agents has met a man who knows someone else who knows a chap whose colleague may have overheard a German mention the word “rockets”: ridiculous!’ He closed the folder as if resting his case.

‘If I may say – with the very greatest of respect, Lord Swalcliffe – that is an unnecessarily cynical interpretation of what happened. We have—’

‘Perhaps it would help,’ said Pearson, leaning forward uncomfortably, ‘if Tom explained the situation and then you can respond, Lord Swalcliffe, along with our other colleagues, of course.’

Gilbey launched into his explanation before anyone could protest. ‘Back in August, Stockholm station had a walk-in: a Danish businessman who claimed to have picked up intelligence about the German V-rocket programme while in Berlin.’ He paused. Lord Swalcliffe was looking at his folder, impatiently bouncing his pencil up and down on it. ‘George Weston handled the chap himself and decided he merited serious attention, gave him the code name Horatio. We recruited an agent here – Agent Laertes – and sent him to Denmark to work with Horatio. We already had an agent in Copenhagen called Agent Osric who we’ve been keeping under wraps for something of this importance. Osric has been in a good position to check out Agent Horatio and is satisfied, as far as one can be sure, that he is who he says he is. Therefore, we were able to move to the next stage of the operation: for Agent Laertes to meet with Horatio. This happened last week, and it is that meeting that forms the basis of my report.’

He hesitated. He wished he’d been better prepared. It was typical of Pearson to have thrust this briefing on him. At school Roly had a reputation as a particularly devious cricketer, known for running out his own teammates.

‘Let me say at the outset that Agent Osric watched Laertes enter the building where the meeting took place – Horatio’s apartment block, as it happens – and kept an eye on it throughout the meeting. When Laertes left, Osric followed him back to his safe house. They are certain he was not being watched or followed.’