He let himself smile at the warm feeling coming from the artefact, then glanced sidelong and saw that the young man was surely feeling the same way. But then he actually made eye contact with Sefton, and instead of any shared sentiment, as if they were both in an art gallery, the look on his face was grim. To Sefton’s surprise, the man spoke. He kept his voice low and urgent. He had a slight stammer and an upper-class accent. ‘Does you being here mean what I think it does?’

Sefton turned slowly to look at him, sizing him up.

‘Does someone like you being here mean that the Keel brothers are about to make their move?’

Someone like him? In what sense? Sefton chose his West Indian gang accent. ‘I don’t feel you.’ Suggesting that he really did know what was going on.

The man looked suddenly shocked. He lowered his voice even further. ‘You’re prepared to go that far? In the presence of all this?’

Sefton was now completely lost. But he didn’t let his expression show it. It was vital that he continue to feed this man’s assumption that he knew as much about what was going on as the man did. That was his way in. He smiled a very deliberate smile, and straightened his back from his gang slump, squared his shoulders, emanating basic dominance. Whatever this was, yeah, he was prepared to go that far. Feigning confidence had saved him in the past. Sometimes he thought that was all there was to life. He wished he found it as easy to do in the real world as when he was undercover.

The man seemed not to know what to do. He looked exasperated for a moment, then turned and walked quickly away. He looked back to Sefton from the end of the aisle, then he was off.

Well, that had been a come-hither look. So, here we go; the way in was opening up. Sefton gave it a moment of further window shopping, then went past the oblivious staff again, down something that was trying to slope both ways and out into the sunshine and onto the normal pavement. The man was loitering on the corner beside an ancient-looking cafe; when he saw that Sefton was following, he went inside. So Sefton did too.

*   *   *