‘Of course.’

‘I assume you’re not going to inform me of the nature of the request you’ll make of Incisor.’

‘I’m afraid not. It’s just too case sensitive, as I think the prime minister outlined.’

‘All right, but I would like this certainty, that if Incisor is in any way reluctant to carry out the task or hand over the information you require, if he thinks it’s too sensitive or dangerous, you don’t press the matter. I’ve always promised him that we’d do all we could to avoid putting him at risk and he is, understandably, of a nervous disposition.’

Kate wasn’t sure she could give this pledge, but what choice did she have? ‘Of course. I would never do anything to put anyone unnecessarily at risk,’ she said, thinking of Maja last night, the death of her sister Lena and the fact that this sentence – which she might once have uttered with conviction – carried no weight whatsoever, a fact of which Andrew must be acutely aware. How had she, always so careful in all things, managed to gain a reputation for being reckless? ‘But I do have to warn you that the stakes are very high,’ she said. ‘And there’s nothing any of us can do about that.’

Andrew didn’t look satisfied, but he had clearly made his pact in this matter, if not peace with himself for failing to respect his own principles and instincts. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I need to get on. I’ll leave you to hammer out the final logistics. Kate, we can pick up when everyone else has finished on our psychological assessment of Incisor.’

After that they were on the call for a further two hours. Andrew’s assistants took them through the route to the pool and back step by step and landmark by landmark. Then they worked through the park. In order to keep anyone watching him on their toes, Incisor varied the route of his morning walk in this section and didn’t always leave by the same exit. The park was normally busy by the time he arrived, even in the depths of winter, so if you combined it with the route to the swimming pool and back, there was enough light and shade in anti-surveillance terms – busier sections giving way to quieter ones and then the reverse – for it to be workable, if, Kate thought, less than ideal.

Finally, they dealt with the issue of communications. Julie had prepared this and they had two series of phone numbers for the two parts of the operation – the initial meeting and then a drop-off a day or two later of whatever information Incisor might have to impart. Kate and her team would power up the appointed phones at six on the Monday morning and power them off again as soon as the meeting had been completed. If Andrew’s team was confident that Incisor was not being watched or followed as he returned home to pick up his dog and walk in the park, there would be no communication at all and Kate would merely pick up and handle it from there. If there were to be an issue, Kate would receive a message: Sorry, our dog needs to go to the vet. Can we reschedule?