‘Tea?’

‘No.’

Rose took out a mug and made herself a herbal tea as the kettle came to the boil. ‘After we had that breakfast meeting with Ian, before your mother died, I went down to Alan’s house to discuss how we deal with the fact that Ian is not going to let the past lie. Alan said he thought Ian would launch a full-scale internal inquiry into you and your conduct, and I’m afraid he’s been proved right.’

Kate wondered why her aunt and Sir Alan should have been so concerned about Ian raking over the past, but she suppressed the thought immediately. This investigation was beginning to make her start at shadows.

‘This morning, he outlined his working theory to the management committee. There is, he said, likely to have been a high-level mole working at the heart of SIS for a great many years.’

Kate sat. Was Ian buying time by launching a search for himself? It might give him the excuse and time to hoover up all available evidence and destroy it.

‘But what troubled me was the outline he drew, that it was likely to be a woman, recruited in the mid-nineties. It seemed certain, he said, that it was also someone who had spent much of her career working on Russia.’

‘So me, basically?’

Rose sat opposite her. ‘Alan’s view is that the investigation has two purposes: systematically to find and destroy evidence that would prove Ian’s guilt, while pointing the finger – circumstantially, at least – at you.’

‘Sir Alan must have told you about Dante?’

Rose nodded. ‘He’s suspected a mole for years. It’s no surprise that more evidence has emerged that one exists.’

‘What do you think I should do?’

‘You have no choice. Find Dante before he or she manages to destroy the evidence of their treachery. Or walk away and hope for the best.’

‘I have a week at most. Then the prime minister pulls the plug and it becomes all too easy for everyone to lay the blame on me.’

Rose leant forward and gave her niece a tender kiss. Kate held her aunt tightly. Suddenly, she needed all the support she could get. ‘Everything all right with you?’ Kate asked again.

‘Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?’

‘Oh, no reason. Just … checking.’

Kate made the domestic arrangements for the children, bade her aunt farewell and drove home, where she found Fiona sitting nervously with the new head of SIS, foreign secretary Imogen Conrad, and Kate’s half-Vietnamese former deputy in the Service, Suzy Spencer. Imogen already had a bottle of wine open in front of her, which was the first of many ominous signs. Fiona, sensing perhaps that the temperature had just dropped ten degrees, bolted for the door. Kate wished she could do the same.

18

‘IT WAS IMPORTANT to bring Ian into this,’ Imogen offered, as her opening gambit, without greeting or apology.

Ian raised his hands. ‘I’ve made it clear I’m merely a neutral observer. I can’t be seen to take sides between the foreign secretary and the prime minister. That simply isn’t in my remit.’