She knew she owed the CIA for getting her out of the KGB’s reach, and she owed Dixon for giving her work that actually challenged her and for giving her back her only physical memory of her son. But she also knew she couldn’t work for them forever, being allowed to stray gradually further and further from her lab but always kept on an invisible leash.

Valera had been generous, giving NASA and the CIA as much of her brain as they could handle. But she was close to paying off her side of the bargain she’d struck in London with Dixon and Murphy. In fact, she’d decided that after her next major success, which might be mere minutes away, she’d wait for the celebratory party Americans were so fond of throwing to reach its height, then quietly slip out, put a jumper and some biscuits in her small backpack, disappear into the great American wilderness, and go find a lake somewhere to sail a boat on.

So, she was anxious as she moved from panel to panel, followed by her assigned acolytes, but not for the reasons Dixon imagined.

Chapter 65

Chapter 65

Knox walked through the front door of Leconfield House with absolutely no attention or fanfare, which was exactly how he liked it. For the first month after the Peterson affair and Holland’s return, whenever he arrived at MI5 headquarters he’d always encounter someone who wanted to congratulate him or apologise for believing the rumours and character assassinations that had been spread about him during his suspension. Now, a year later, things had settled down and it was back to business as normal.

MI5 had covered the cost of restoring Knox’s flat, and his extended stay at Duke’s Hotel on St James’s Place. When he’d stepped back into his flat again for the first time after everything had been repaired, he remembered Peterson calling him a hypocrite for using his connections to buy it in the first place. After three weeks of building work he decided the least he could do was introduce himself to the other residents who were starting to fill up the building, if only to say sorry for the inconvenience he’d put them through.

Knox had also been given his own office on the fifth floor of Leconfield House again, next to Holland’s and one that had been put aside for White but which he never used, preferring to stay down in the depths of the building with his engineers.

With Operation Pipistrelle still secure, White had vigorously campaigned for an expansion of its scope and use. He also insisted that primary control be brought in-house to MI5 from GCHQ and Atlas turned back on. After balancing the ever-growing need for better-­quality intelligence with the increased potential for a breach that more Pipistrelle bugs in the field could cause, Holland cautiously agreed to both.