The DGS men chuckled at that. The Paris living allowance was two hundred and eighty euros per month. Some agents called it the ‘Grigny allowance’—referring to a far-flung suburb south of the city—because you sure as shit couldn’t live on it in Paris.

Laval grinned. ‘So how does it work? Wifey has a rich daddy?’

De Payns stood, the scraping chair legs seeming very loud. He could feel himself flexing into an assault stance.

There was a knock on the door and it opened to reveal Philippe Manerie. He smiled at a wide-eyed Laval, then turned to Portmann. ‘I’ll take it from here, thanks.’

When the two DGS agents had left the interview room, carefully avoiding de Payns, Manerie inclined his head and they walked, without talking, down one flight of stairs and through the doors that opened onto the lawns around the old fort.

‘I heard you were overseas,’ said Manerie as they strolled east. ‘Anything you’d like to share?’

‘Jim needs to stand back. I don’t shit where I sleep.’

‘Okay,’ said Manerie. ‘I’ll have a word. So, where were you? Turkey? Syria?’

‘You know I can’t talk about that. By the way, have you shared that photo of me and Moran?’

‘No, but you are the one answering my questions at the moment. Did Shrek see where you disposed of the passports? Are you protecting him?’

De Payns shook his head. ‘What is it with DGS and the fucking passports?’

‘Three million euros is a lot of money, Alec. I’ve seen with my own eyes what some OTs will do if they can get away with it.’

They stopped at the old copse of trees by the fort’s eastern wall.

‘Forget the passports,’ said Manerie, lighting a cigarette. ‘I want to know who sold us out in Sicily.’

‘It wasn’t Shrek,’ said de Payns reflexively.

‘You know that for a fact?’

‘I know that better than I trust you,’ said de Payns.

‘If I put a red flag on you, it’s desk duties,’ said Manerie. ‘And by the way, you owe me for stopping all that shit with Laval. If you’d punched him you’d be on weekly head checks. So no more dodging me, Alec. I want to know who Briffaut and Frasier are fingering for the mole. There’s a bigger game being played and I need to be in front of it.’

When Manerie had left, de Payns walked quickly to the foyer of the Bunker, his head spinning with Operation Falcon, the unsolved leak and the three million euros.