‘I’m not about to insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise, Wada. I’m a living testament to what a man is prepared to overlook in order to live well. But Nishizaki has never trusted me. You must understand that. He has controlled and rewarded me. He retrieved the incriminating documents I had. But he retained the evidence that could prove I was Peter Ellery, wanted man, should he ever need to do so. We’ve grown old together. But old age is a problem in our line of work. Retirement is a delicate concept when so much is at stake. I asked myself, a few years ago, how it was likely to end between us. And I realized Nishizaki would be asking himself the same question. He’s nothing if not ruthless. His success has been built on utter single-mindedness. There’s no room for sentiment or loyalty in his world view. There was only one solution he was likely to arrive at to our shared old age problem: I wasn’t going to retire. I was going to be retired. As in terminated, at a time of his choosing. It was a sobering moment when the certainty of that conclusion was borne in on me, and it was the moment I began planning a way to avoid that fate. I began planning, if you like, to get my solution in first.’

‘And your plan involved … Emergence?’

‘My plan was Emergence. But let’s leave the details of that to one side for the moment. All would have gone smoothly, I believe, but for Marty’s ill-judged communication with Mimori Takenaga, prompted, of course, by Caro’s decision to tell him what she knew before she died. Once Nishizaki realized people were digging into the related questions of Masafumi’s death and my buried identity, he became concerned that our many dealings over many years could unravel, including the extremely lucrative Emergence project. In the course of trying to neutralize the threat he perceived to his position, he had your employer killed and sent Ohara – the Irishman, as I dubbed him – to establish how much Marty knew. In the process, he discovered something about me that I’d hoped to keep from him at all costs, because I was well aware it would give him a hold over me just when I needed the greatest possible freedom of movement. He discovered I had a son.’

‘Nicholas Miller?’

‘Yes. He came across the information amongst the papers he stole from Marty’s flat. And later he forced Miranda to confirm it. Caro was pregnant by me when I ran away, though I didn’t know it at the time. If I had, I suppose I might have stayed and faced the music. Or maybe I wouldn’t. It’s hard to say. Anyway, it doesn’t much matter now.’

‘When did you find out?’