Peterson slammed his cup back down onto the tray and shot off the bed. His body language changed as he stood upright. A deep line appeared across his forehead, his grimace turned into a scowl, and his shoulders became high and tight.

‘I don’t have time for this,’ he said, glaring at Valera. His voice sounded like it had dropped an entire octave. ‘Tell me what I need to know. Now.’

Strangely, his transformation didn’t scare Valera. It calmed her. Now that Peterson had given up on his charade, she knew what kind of man she was dealing with—a man exactly like Zukolev.

‘Why should I?’ she asked.

‘Because I’ve made several promises I need to see through. And if you can’t help me then I have no reason to keep you alive.’

‘What is it you’ve decided I know?’

‘Don’t play stupid with me. I know you’re working on ways to control radio signals. That’s what the KGB wants, and it’s what everyone else in the world wants too. I could force you to give me your research, but I’m on a tight schedule. So you can either give it to me now, or you can die.’

Valera was now sure who her enemy was, that everything this man had said about her rescue from the dark room was a lie, and that he was almost certainly the one who had put her there, yet she suddenly found her appetite for revenge fading. She might just have the strength left in her to hurt the man who called himself Devereux, but it wouldn’t change everything the world had done to her. It had taken her parents and stolen her son. There was no way the scales could be balanced, so what was the point in trying? She could devote all her energy, waste her whole life, and only gain a fraction of the vengeance she deserved.

So, instead of fighting this man, she decided she would use him, give him just enough so she could get what she wanted.

‘I am not going to give away my secrets,’ she said, ‘and you are not going to kill me.’

‘I’m not?’

‘We are going to work together.’

Peterson looked, and sounded, surprised by this sudden attempt to shift the power dynamic between them. ‘We are?’

‘Yes. We are going to be partners.’

Peterson let out a short laugh. ‘Why would I do that?’

‘Because I have something more valuable to sell than just a way to manipulate radio signals. You want to give people a way to eavesdrop on each other. I can give them something bigger. Something much bigger.’

‘Why should I trust you?’ he asked.

Valera walked over to the bed, put her cup down on the tray, then casually sat on the edge of the bed, exactly where Peterson had perched a few minutes earlier.