‘But they’re not sure enough to take matters into their own hands and work out exactly what he’s doing,’ Knox said.

‘Just enough to ask us to do it for them,’ Holland replied with a sigh.

And that was why Knox was now in Victoria, waiting for a seaplane to turn up, so he could ask a knight of the realm if he was smuggling Soviet agents through America’s back door.

Chapter 2

Knox buttoned up his coat as he stepped out of The Empress’s ivy-clad entrance. It was a sunny afternoon, but spring was taking its time to arrive on Canada’s Pacific coast. He could have stayed at his window table, watching the harbour, for the rest of the day, but he didn’t want to run the risk of Northcott arriving at the dock and leaving again before he had the chance to introduce himself. He also didn’t fancy drinking any more of the lounge’s coffee.

To Knox’s left, across two manicured lawns bordered with stunted bulbs, was the Parliament building. It was even more grandiose than The Empress, with imposing domes rather than faux turrets on its roof. The harbour stretched round to his right, curving widely through the heart of Victoria before eventually carving a narrow path up deep into the island.

He crossed over the road that separated the hotel from the dock and took up a position at the top of the steps that led down to the row of floating jetties. Thanks to Northcott’s lack of flight plan Knox had no idea when he’d appear, but according to the Canadian Directorate of Security and Intelligence he always returned to Victoria before sunset. That was in two and a half hours. Already feeling the cold start to seep through his boots, Knox hoped it would be sooner.

Normally a job like this one would fall to the security liaison officer stationed in Ottawa—one of the ranks of junior MI5 agents assigned to assist Britain’s former colonies with their internal security. Unfortunately, Canada’s SLO had been recalled to London two weeks ago after falling prey to a KGB provocation.

According to the brief and rather gruff precis Holland had given Knox, the SLO—who had only been in Ottawa for six months—had been tricked into believing the Ralliement National, a right-wing political party campaigning for independence in Quebec, was secretly being funded by the Soviets. When he escalated it, the KGB claimed innocence, and the Ralliement National exclaimed their offence at British interference in their affairs both officially and loudly. Political tensions across Canada increased, and MI5 had egg on its face, which was exactly what the KGB had intended.