Carol’s voice cut through his introspection. ‘Coffee,’ she said, placing a cafetiere and two mugs on the low glass table.

He turned to face her and smiled. ‘Thanks.’ He took off his jacket, revealing a black V-necked sweater in fine wool; a more fashionable look than he used to go for, Carol noted. They settled down with their drinks, each on a separate sofa, but close enough at the angle between them to have touched if they’d felt able to. ‘So,’ he said. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’

Carol tucked her feet under her and cradled her mug in both hands. ‘I’m dying to talk about it. They’re sending me in deep. Total immersion undercover.’

‘This is Europol?’ he asked.

‘Not exactly. It’s a UK operation. To tell you the truth, the lines are a bit blurred. I’m not sure where Special Branch ends and Customs and Excise begins on this one. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the intelligence services have got a finger in the pie too.’ She gave a wry little smile. ‘All I know for sure is that my own chain of command goes through Superintendent Morgan, who is attached to NCIS. And that’s all I’m supposed to need to know.’

Tony was experienced enough as an interviewer of serial offenders not to let his unease show. But already he didn’t like the sound of this. In his limited experience of British policing, grey areas always heralded deniability. If the time came when someone had to be shot down in flames, the only person visible in the sights would be Carol. That she wasn’t admitting this even to herself was worrying. ‘What’s the assignment?’

Carol relayed everything Morgan had told her about Tadeusz Radecki. ‘Morgan said that when he saw my Europol application, he couldn’t believe his eyes,’ she continued. ‘Katerina was dead, but here was her double, applying to work at the sharp end of intelligence. And so he came up with the idea of mounting an operation using me as the bait to sucker Radecki in.’

‘You’re going undercover to try to seduce Radecki?’ Tony felt the ground shift under his feet. He’d thought the honey trap had died with the Cold War.

‘No, no, it’s much more subtle than that. It’s a sting. According to Morgan, Radecki used to have a sweet little deal going with a gangster in Essex, Colin Osborne. Osborne would funnel Radecki’s illegal immigrants in via a couple of clothing sweatshops he ran in the East End. Every few months he’d tip off a contact in Immigration and get them hustled away to detention centres. Then he’d replace them with the next shipment from Radecki. He managed to keep his own nose clean, because the sweatshops were always set up using false names and credit references.’

‘Neat,’ Tony said.