‘Why do you say that?’

‘Instinct.’

‘Well, we know you are new to the spying game, so tell me why he might be a drug dealer?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It does.’

‘I learned more about the Prague mafia than I wanted to know.’ He shrugged. ‘You got any further working out who is following us?’

‘Not yet,’ Kate said. ‘Maybe it doesn’t matter.’

‘The expression on your face tells me it definitely matters.’

But they didn’t have to wait long for an answer. A few moments later, a middle-aged man in a leather jacket – balding, but fit and lithe, with a huge Tag Heuer on his wrist – slipped on to the bench beside Kate. ‘Pete,’ she said, nodding to herself. ‘I should have guessed it was you.’

‘I’m sorry, Kate,’ he said. ‘I knew you’d be sweating, but we’re under the watchful eye of your former deputy, Suzy Spencer, so I had to wait until she left the control room.’

‘Where are you set up?’

‘I can’t tell you that. I just wanted you to know who we were, so that you didn’t worry.’

‘I can think of lots of reasons this would make me concerned, Pete.’

‘It’s a watching brief, that’s all. Nothing more.’

‘Does one of you want to tell me what the hell is going on?’ Callum asked.

Kate looked at him. ‘Pete works in the SIS Operations Department. The men who have been trailing us are our people.’ She turned back to Pete. ‘Authorized by Ian, I assume?’

‘I can’t tell you that, Kate. I’m sorry.’

She faced Callum again. ‘I don’t think Suzy would have the guts to authorize this kind of operational expense on her own, so it either came from Ian or was signed off by him. The difference is academic.’

Callum looked more surprised by this than he should have done. ‘We have the direct authority of the cabinet secretary and the prime minister,’ he said, as if this should answer all potential challenges.

Pete shrugged. ‘We miss you,’ he told Kate. ‘You’re in good hands,’ he told Callum. ‘She’s the best.’ He stood. ‘I’d better get going. She’ll be back in the control room in a minute and she doesn’t miss a trick.’

‘Thanks, Pete. We’ll be out of here tomorrow and we’ve nothing else going on bar a night on the tiles, so I should enjoy the sights.’

‘Will do,’ he said. And then he sauntered out.

‘A night on the tiles?’ Callum asked, once he was gone.

‘Why not?’ She smiled at him. ‘And you shouldn’t look so surprised by all that. It does your street cred no bloody good at all.’

‘Well, I am surprised. We’re conducting an investigation under the direct authority of the prime minister. They’ve absolutely no call to be interfering with it in any way.’

‘How do you know Shirley Grove didn’t authorize it?’

‘It’s possible. But why would she do that?’

‘Because I’m a suspect. You heard her. So I investigate Ian, while she looks into me. That’s how it’s going to work. The bigger question is whose side you’re on.’