My own schedule was tight, but possible. The lads. were still out on their night exercise, so there was no need for explanations. My first date with Anna had gone down the tubes; but under our new arrangement she had agreed to pick me up at 8.45, so I just had time for a shower. One hell of a shower it had to be, too. I washed my hair twice to get rid of the smell, and as I scoured myself all over, I felt my spirits lifting.

The worst part of the evening was over. What lay ahead I wasn’t sure, but at least there was a promise of some action and excitement.

Comfortable in clean clothes, I again left word with the scalies and headed for the guardroom. I’d asked Anna not to drive in, in case any of the lads saw her and started taking the piss, and I found her sitting outside at the wheel of her little blue Fiat. As I climbed into the passenger seat I got a kiss on the cheek and a waft of heady scent – not the cheap rubbish that the slappers at the hotel had been doused in, but something sophisticated and Western. In the dim light I couldn’t see exactly what she was wearing, except that it was a trouser suit. She had a big fur coat thrown back off her shoulders, over the seat.

‘Great to see you!’ I went. ‘Great of you to come. Where are we going?’

‘A restaurant called the Taiga.’ She turned and gave me a peculiar look, not quite mocking, but definitely amused. ‘That’s not your kind of tiger, by the way.’ She spelled the word out and said, ‘It means the forest in Siberia, the wild forest. The restaurant’s only a small place. No tourists ever go there. But it has proper Russian food.’

‘Sounds good,’ I said. ‘In fact, it sounds tremendous. I haven’t eaten all day.’

‘Well,’ she said, as she zipped through the gears, ‘tell me the story.’

‘Sasha must have told you already.’

‘He has. But I want to hear your version.’

‘You will. But I won’t bore you with it yet. Wait till we get there. I need a drink to get me going.’

‘All right. It’s not far.’

Once again we sped down that damned road, then cut away through the northern edge of the city. I complimented her on the car, on her driving, on her clothes (even though I couldn’t see them) – anything to avoid plunging into the saga, because I was afraid that once I’d started, everything would come out.

My mind was whirling as Anna pulled up in a scruffy side-street.

‘Here we are,’ she announced.