Three days really wasn’t enough. Carol stared into her wardrobe, frowning. Some of her clothes would work, but most of them wouldn’t. Morgan had given her a budget for new outfits that had made her eyebrows climb, but shopping to spend it was going to take her the best part of the day. Then she’d have to pack for her new identity, making sure she didn’t include anything that would give a hint of her reality.

Her brother Michael had already agreed to take care of Nelson; he planned to drive down that evening from his home in Bradfield and take the cat back to the stylish loft apartment they’d once shared there. At least Michael hadn’t asked awkward questions, like why he was being asked to cat-sit indefinitely while his sister went off to some unspecified destination; as soon as she’d said she couldn’t explain for operational reasons, he’d dropped the subject.

The one thing she wished was that she’d had the chance to confide in Tony. She knew his insights would be helpful, and, more than that, his support would give her confidence. But an assignment this sensitive wasn’t something she could trust either to the phone lines or to electronic communication. She had called him after her briefing session with Morgan, and had hated having to hold out on him. She’d made it clear that her reluctance was based purely on her misgivings about the security of their means of communication and, like Michael, he hadn’t pressed her.

Carol flicked through the hangers, selecting possible garments and throwing them on the bed behind her. She was grateful that she would have to abandon most of what she had chosen to reflect her own personality. The thought that Carol Jordan might have much in common with this new creation, Caroline Jackson, even on the most superficial level, was not something she felt comfortable with. It bothered her slightly that the names were so similar, even though Morgan had explained the operational reasons for it. ‘We like to keep the first name as close to your own as possible, so you don’t get those horrible moments where someone says your name and you don’t connect at all. And we’ve found it helps if the initials are the same too. Those who know about these things say it makes it all psychologically easier and less likely that you’ll trip yourself up.’