Andrew fell smoothly back on his second line of defence: doubts over whether the cut-out was really effective enough for the timescale and nature of the task in hand. He gave a little ground in terms of secrecy in order to shore up his broader strategy. He confirmed the intermediary was a journalist for Izvestia who was a keen amateur swimmer. In an early-morning club he attended on a Monday morning, he swam with the young woman to Andrew’s right, who had once toyed with becoming a professional. On Thursday mornings, he swam with Incisor at a different pool close to Gorky Park. Messages and information were passed in a bag left in a locker. ‘But,’ Andrew went on smoothly, ‘the journalist and Incisor have been spooked by our decision to send Jilly Peters back to London. They would likely not respond if they were suddenly confronted by a new message with any dramatic request.’

Now it was Kate’s turn to jump in. ‘You must have an emergency procedure for a face-to-face?’

‘Yes,’ Andrew conceded hesitantly. ‘But I have to say, Kate, we assess that now is absolutely not the time to exercise it – at least, not without a grave threat to our agent.’

‘Sometimes the potential reward justifies the risk,’ the prime minister said. ‘So I’m afraid we’ll have to insist you activate the emergency procedure. If there’s a risk to Incisor – and I accept there may be – I take full responsibility for that decision and any potential consequences that may arise from it.’

For a long time, Andrew seemed about to refuse point blank and Kate had no doubt he would have done so in any other circumstances. But the prime minister’s direct order made his position difficult and everyone in the room knew it. Grove kept her eyes fixed on Kate.

Andrew Blake withdrew to his third line of defence, which involved the practicable impossibility of arranging the meeting without unacceptable risk to Incisor in the timescale available, given the number of clean ‘facilities’ agents they used in Moscow who were certain to be free of suspicion by the FSB.

The prime minister was growing still blunter. ‘But Mrs Henderson here is a field agent of at least your experience, or greater, is she not?’ Andrew had to concede she was. ‘Right, then,’ the prime minister said. ‘I accept your reservations. I understand the problems you’re working with. So I hereby appoint her as commander of this operation. You will assist her in so far as you can, but she will have control of the preparations and events on the ground in Moscow. You will make sure she has the procedure for triggering an emergency meeting and she will handle it from there. Your reservations are noted, but if she’s confident she can bring in the resources to manage this safely, then I’m afraid that’s good enough for me.’

At this last hurdle, Kate was briefly certain Andrew would refuse or offer to resign, or both. But he must have been more ambitious than she’d imagined – or more certain than he’d let on that he could manage events on the ground safely for Incisor – for he moved on without a beat to begin the process of detailed planning. As she had predicted, he and his team must have been up half the night working on it, because their preparation was exceptionally thorough.