‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, clearly not enjoying the ridicule. ‘I’m divorced, it’s okay.’

When the laughter had stopped, Lafont turned to Garrat. ‘You’ve seen her horny emails, right, Mattieu?’

He nodded. ‘Sure.’

‘Those emails were about that,’ she said, pointing at de Payns.

Lafont turned back to de Payns. ‘Nice try, Aguilar. The sex part is optional, but you’re not bailing out of this contact. We’re almost there.’

De Payns looked to Briffaut, who shrugged. ‘Like she said, mon pote. Maybe read those emails again?’

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER

FORTY-THREE

Lafont followed him back to his office. ‘Sorry about that,’ she said, as de Payns secured two files in his safe. ‘If you have a better way to Timberwolf and the MERC, I’ll listen. But Mattieu hasn’t been in the field for five years—on something this sensitive, he’d absolutely screw it up.’

‘I’ll do it,’ said de Payns, sagging back in his chair. ‘It’s okay.’

‘It’s not okay,’ said Lafont. ‘I did this when I was single. You’re married with kids.’

De Payns opened his hands at her. ‘Any ideas?’

‘You could try some hot and heavy kissing and then pull away, tell her you have an admission to make—you’re married and now you’re torn between the lust you have for her and the vows you made to your wife?’

De Payns scoffed. ‘You kidding me? That works?’

‘If you want her to pull you in, not push you away—yes, it could work.’

‘Or she thinks I’m a married sleaze, having an affair …’

Briffaut appeared in the doorway. ‘Frasier’s called an emergency meeting for Alamut. We’ll take my car.’

There were five of them in the smallest of the executive SCIFs, on the top floor of the Cat. De Payns and Briffaut, and Lafont and her chemicals genius, Josef Ackermann, also from the CP division. Frasier sat at the head of the table, in a hurry as usual.

‘As some of you know, I’ve delayed issuing the final report on Operation Falcon because, candidly, I wanted more details,’ said Frasier. ‘That’s no reflection on Aguilar or his team—we had to pull the plug and I guess we weren’t hanging around interviewing people.’

Frasier caught his eye and de Payns nodded.

‘So five days ago I tasked Shrek to go to Sicily, retrace what we know and see what else might present itself. Well, Shrek got back from Sicily yesterday, and along with his report he had some samples.’

Frasier distributed a brief report featuring photographs of pale granular items on dark backgrounds. De Payns flipped the pages and saw wide-angle shots inside old warehouses and a square drain covered with an iron grille.