‘Not so much now. My main contact is Putin’s mentor and hero, Ivan Modinsky. A gentleman spy if ever there was one. I liked him more than most. We got on well. I always enjoyed his company.’

‘Honour among thieves?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Honour among assassins, perhaps?’

‘Al, remember, this call could be monitored.’

‘Sorry, listeners. I was joking. Neither Cavalier nor Modinsky is an assassin.’

‘Nor are they thieves!’

Haut chuckled. ‘Modinsky, Modinsky …’ he reflected. ‘He ran British spies, didn’t he?’

‘Ivan ran at least twenty British double agents from Cambridge, Oxford and the London School of Economics. He was the doyen of KGB spies. He was well retired when I knew him. A good time to talk to old spies.’

‘Why?’

‘They open up. I first met him in 1993, a few years after the Communist walls went down. The bottom had dropped out of the rouble in the massive sea change from the dissolving of the Soviet Union to the formation of the Russian state. Retired agents saw their pensions diminished. They were suddenly very poor. One US dollar bought you a thousand roubles. I offered Modinsky a thousand dollars US in cash for a TV documentary interview; that is, one million roubles. It would keep you going for a long time buying goods on the Russian black market.’

‘I think I saw that documentary,’ Haut said. ‘Did Modinsky have a white beard?’

‘That’s the one. He looked like Colonel Sanders in the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.’

Haut took a deep breath.

‘I don’t know what to do about Hamburg,’ he said. ‘I’ll pray into it.’

‘Good idea and I’ll give Modinsky a ring if you like. Run it past him.’ Cavalier paused and added: ‘Then you’ll have two valuable opinions.’

‘That would be most helpful,’ Haut said with enthusiasm. ‘You sure you wouldn’t want to make the trip to Hamburg?’

‘Love the place! So much sea-port atmosphere, and infested with espionage agents from several countries. But no. As I said, commitments.’

‘Newspaper or—’

‘I promised not to tell.’

‘I’ll pay for the airfare and hotel expenses. You can even bring a girlfriend.’

‘Don’t have one at the moment. But as I said, I’ll see what I can do. I have a most reliable friend who is in need of a job.’

*

Cavalier parked his Harley in a grubby side street off Chiang Mai’s notorious Loi Kroh, a road of cafes, bars and massage parlours, some of them staffed by prostitutes. He entered the Entertainment Complex, a place he had avoided for a year or so since one of his few friends in the city, an English bar owner and web designer, had split with his Thai partner and moved to Pattaya.