The slick feeling on her tongue took Valera instantly back to her first spring in Povenets B, when the sun was starting to get hot and the days were getting longer. She had sat on the scrub in front of her bungalow, smearing jam made from Zukolev’s private supply of raspberries that she’d kept over winter onto chunks of rye bread as Ledjo showed off his Young Pioneers neckerchief, which Valera had made for him the night before. He’d marched up and down as Valera clapped and laughed, chanting the Young Pioneers’ motto, ‘Be prepared!’, over and over between bites of jam and bread.

Valera kept scooping jam into her mouth until the jar was empty. As the last of it slid past her tongue she came back to the present. She almost cried, remembering how proud Ledjo had been and that for a brief while she had been happy in Povenets B. She had no idea who was holding her, or what they had planned for her, but as she sucked her fingers clean she promised her son that she’d be prepared for whatever happened to her next.

Chapter 52

Chapter 52

The Royal Institute of British Architects had occupied 66 Portland Place since 1934. The building was a masterclass in Art Deco restraint. Its near-smooth stone-clad walls were adorned only by a few tall, slim bas-relief sculptures. Through the bronze double doors, a grand marble foyer stood in front of an equally impressive glass and polished chrome staircase, which led up to a large, double-height ballroom.

In a few hours’ time a reception for the heads of state who had come to London would be held at Buckingham Palace. But the ambassadors, foreign and finance ministers who would actually be working during the OECD conference were being treated to the splendour of the RIBA headquarters for the afternoon. And so were their top spies.

Four Met officers stood outside the entrance, but when Knox and Bennett slipped down the narrow mews that led to the rear of Portland Place they didn’t run into any more. There was just a set of steps leading down to a basement door with a lock that put up little resistance to Knox’s shoulder.

They made their way through the bowels of the building, eventually finding a flight of stairs that took them up to a corridor just off the foyer. Knox glanced round the corner and out through the glass panels of the front door, checking that the policemen standing in front of the building weren’t paying attention to what was going on inside it.