As soon as he found out about Operation Pipistrelle, he knew he’d found his way out. He’d tried for years to get his hands on one of the bugs, but White guarded them zealously. So he’d kept his ears and eyes open in case something similar came along, which was how he ended up meeting Bianchi and Moretti.

He knew he could sell the Italians’ eavesdropping technology, and the OECD conference had given him the perfect market of paranoid governments and businesses. But now, with what Valera was offering, he could end up even richer than he’d hoped and, depending on what deals were done over the next couple of days, immeasurably powerful as well.

He’d briefly considered selling Valera’s discovery—and Valera—back to the Russians. But he decided he didn’t owe them such preferential treatment. Yes, his handler had asked him to look out for information about a defector passing through Finland, but it was he who found out who Valera really was, arranged for her to be extracted from Stockholm, and finally got her to confess just how valuable she could be.

Valera and Peterson had spent another hour going over her enhanced spread-spectrum code-division technology. By the time they were done Peterson had grasped enough of the basic principles to convincingly parrot them back to Valera.

As he left, he told her that someone would come by shortly with more provisions for her for the evening and a change of clothes for the morning. Half an hour later a man had delivered a fresh selection of bland sandwiches and a suit carrier, and she was now sitting in the living room, in a white shirt and plain black skirt and jacket, waiting for Peterson to return.

Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Bennett reached over to the passenger side of the car, opened the glovebox, rattled the tin of travel sweets inside, and shut the compartment again. She went through this little routine whenever one of the residents of Methley Street walked past the Anglia as they began their morning commute, because it made her look less conspicuous than if she was just sitting behind the wheel not going anywhere.

She’d managed to stay awake most of the night, only dropping off for a few minutes around 3 a.m. and again at five. After finishing her crackers an hour into her stake-out, she’d staved off hunger thanks to the travel sweets, which she’d found shortly after midnight and had dipped into every couple of hours. Despite her brief lapses, she was sure she hadn’t missed anyone coming or going from the address White had given her.