‘What are you waiting for?’ he says. ‘I don’t want you here any longer than absolutely necessary. Come on!’

*

It happens fast. Suddenly Jacob is on an exam table, can feel the stiff, crisp paper scratching and scraping beneath his bare chest, paper sliding against the worn vinyl. Someone, probably the woman, smears cold gel between his shoulder blades. He senses Yassim somewhere behind him.

‘It was supposed to be me,’ he says. ‘This is how we transport information when it’s particularly sensitive.’

Jacob swallows and nods. Adrenaline pumping. No turning back.

‘They’ll place the chip just beneath your skin,’ Yassim continues. ‘Between your shoulder blades. It takes two minutes, no more. Just a quick cut and three stitches.’

He says something in Arabic that Jacob doesn’t catch, and she backs away, as he squats down by Jacob’s face.

‘Last chance, Jacob,’ he says. ‘Once we do this, there’s no going back.’

Jacob takes a deep breath. He doesn’t hesitate for a second. ‘Just do it,’ he says.

Yassim rises and nods to the doctor. Then Jacob feels the quick prick of a needle.

*

Fifteen minutes later they’re back in the taxi. Yassim holds his hand and turns to him. The sun is brighter now, flashing off the windows of the buildings that line the streets.

‘Does it hurt?’ he says.

‘Not yet,’ Jacob says. ‘Can’t feel it at all. The anaesthesia is definitely working.’

Yassim nods. ‘You’re brave,’ he says.

‘I’m not so brave,’ Jacob says. ‘But I like you. A lot.’

Yassim squeezes his hand and turns his face away, looks out into the morning sunlight.

By the time the taxi stops outside Urbanista on Gemmayzeh Street, the anaesthesia has started to wear off, and Jacob can feel the small incision between his shoulder blades starting to sting and tighten. Three stitches. ‘You’ll hardly notice it,’ the stressed doctor said before shooing them back out to the taxi again. ‘Like a wasp sting.’

‘I wish I could have taken you all the way home,’ Yassim says now. ‘But I think it’s for the best if you go the rest of the way by yourself. It’s just a few hundred metres from here.’

Jacob nods. ‘What happens now?’

‘Now you live your life as usual, darling. You stick to the story we talked about when Myriam contacts you. In just two weeks you’ll be on a flight to Brussels. I’ll meet you there.’

‘It feels so surreal,’ Jacob says.

Yassim stares deep into his eyes. ‘I know it’s too much,’ he whispers. ‘I know I have no right to ask this of you.’ Yassim kisses him gently on the mouth.

Jacob almost pulls back, shocked by this sudden open display of intimacy. Then he pushes Yassim away and shakes his head. ‘I’m doing this because I want to,’ he says. ‘For you. And because it’s what’s right.’