The waitress brought his food: eggs on toast. He ate it methodically, as if wanting to buy himself more time. ‘Why do you want this information? How can it help MI6 to have the travel records of the former head of the SVR?’

‘We’re looking for an agent at the heart of SIS called Dante. We think he is the principal, if not only, source of information for Unit 61a. He has helped Borodin and his acolytes create and implement the greatest disinformation campaign we have ever seen, which has systematically undermined the reputation of our prime minister and democracy.’

‘Your prime minister will pay anything, then, for his name to be cleared?’

‘We’ve narrowed the hunt for Dante down to two suspects. If we can overlay Borodin’s travel schedule with theirs over a long enough period, we feel the truth will be clearly evident.’

He nodded. ‘I will leave the office early at five minutes to six. I will drive to my apartment, then walk through the park and along the Moskva Embankment. My sister will be with me. I will stop and ask you for a light. I will slip a USB with the information into your pocket. We will proceed to the swimming pool, where the extraction process will begin with the procedure I have agreed with my handlers here.’

‘I thought you said it was dangerous or impossible to download material.’

‘There is danger in any event. This way, our contact is reduced to a minimum. Agreed?’

‘Yes.’

And before she could probe any further, he was up and gone.

32

KATE SENT ONE more burst of communication to relay what had been agreed, then took out her phone battery, threw the SIM card into the river and walked back to Arbatskaya.

Grove was already in the flat and they settled in for a nerve-shredding twenty-four hours.

Kate went to bed early that night, but her sleep was fitful and she eventually got up and installed herself by the window of the small sitting room to gaze out over the city’s rooftops. She was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice Grove’s presence until the cabinet secretary had dropped down into the seat beside her. ‘Can’t sleep?’ Grove asked.

‘I never have, before an important day in a hostile country. You just go over and over everything, wondering what you might have missed.’

‘And what could it be here?’

Kate examined her wedding ring. ‘I didn’t see any tell, formal or informal,’ she said quietly, as if talking to herself, which perhaps she was.

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘If Incisor was worried or wanted to alert us to anything or delay the meeting, he would have been carrying the dog’s lead in his left hand. That’s the agreed signal. But aside from that, you can often tell if an agent is under pressure as they approach from the ease or otherwise of their gait. I didn’t spot any signals in Incisor on the run-in, but he was nervous in that café. He fidgeted and kept glancing around us, which he will have been instructed to avoid doing, because it sends a sure signal to anyone who might be watching.