I tried to turn my head, groggy but desperate to see who was behind me. All I could make out was the sagging brickwork, a rusting metal feeder mounted on the nearest wall with a two-pronged pitchfork leaning at its side. The air smelled of damp and rot; of wet wood. Nobody had used this byre in a long time.

‘I don’t care what you’re doing,’ I muttered. ‘Guatemala. Belize. I’m not important, Walt. And my friends, John and Felicity – they can keep their mouths shut. Whatever you’re doing, I don’t need to know. Everything you think about what we do, about the things we have to do in service of something greater than ourselves – I think the way you do. You’ve seen my file, you know my politics. I’ve worked for the company all these years because keeping busy and doing something exciting is the only way that I can stop myself going mad. Grief nearly killed me and catching a bad person revived me. I do this job because the alternative is misery and a noose. People matter more to me than a flag, Walt. I’d kick the queen in the ribs right now if it meant you let Felicity go.’

I became more animated as I talked, wriggling and writhing and desperately trying to loosen my ropes. I felt my skin tear against the rough surface. Felt tears leaking from my eyes and suffered a sudden flash of memory; years before, basic training, a hand on the back of my head and my face submerged in dirty water; my instructors simulating real-life torture and applauding me for holding out longer than any of the other recruits. I never yielded. Never gave up my secrets. But that had been years before when I was too damn stubborn to let anybody beat me. It wasn’t real. I’d have told Walt anything he wanted to know if he just cut my bonds and told me to take my friends and go.

‘It’s not up to me to let them go, Cordelia,’ he said, softly. ‘I don’t have them. The gentlemen at your house – the gentlemen who await my arrival – they have them. What they choose to do with them depends entirely upon the outcome of our little tête-à-tête.’

‘You and me?’ I gasped. ‘Whatever you ask, whatever you want …’

He waved a hand as if briefly perturbed by a wasp. ‘You and I? Good God, no. I’ve told you before, you are nothing but a nuisance here. You were not meant to be involved.’

‘It’s my house!’ I shouted, unable to contain myself.