‘But what if he’s right?’

Imogen was struggling to keep her temper. ‘He isn’t. You know it. I know it. Ian and Suzy know it. And it’s time for all of us to do our duty.’

Kate could think of few things more unlikely than Imogen being motivated by anything as quaint as doing her duty but she picked a different target. ‘I thought Ian was only here as an observer,’ she said. Ian gave her a withering look and she regretted the cheap shot immediately. But exposing his transparent political manoeuvres was a temptation she could never resist.

‘What I’m really asking is, are you with us or against us?’

Although she was well versed in Imogen Conrad’s colossal political ambition, Kate was nevertheless a bit shocked by this. She hadn’t expected her to make it quite so tribal. She wondered what Imogen’s often-cuckolded husband Harry thought of her new determination to rise to the very top.

Kate thought long and hard before replying. ‘I’m not for or against you, Imogen, as you of all people should know. I’m just trying to get to some form of truth here.’

‘How very noble of you,’ Ian said. He stood. ‘Good luck, Kate.’ He moved to the door, Suzy with him, as if they couldn’t wait to get away. Imogen appeared torn, but followed her new acolytes, a little sheepish as to how this had turned out. Kate tidied up, washed and put away the glasses, then went up to bed. Before she turned off the lights, she sent a message to Stuart: Tell them I’ll meet the day after tomorrow in Prague.

And another to her old friend from the SIS ops division, Danny: Hi Danny, sorry to contact you out of the blue. Any chance you could slip out for a coffee early tomorrow morning? I have a favour to ask and, inevitably, time is not on my side.

Danny pinged a message straight back: Anytime. Where and when?

Kate picked a coffee house not far from the makeshift office in Pimlico and switched off the light. As a testament to her new state of mind – and, to be fair, the medication she was on – she went out in seconds and slept deeply.

19

THE HEADQUARTERS OF the Czech Foreign Intelligence Service, UZSI, were located in a nondescript grey suburban office block with a side-extension that resembled a collapsed chocolate box. After much internal debate, Kate had decided that the best course of action in approaching Ian’s former lover Eva Svobodova was relative honesty. She and Callum had briefly toyed with the idea of claiming they were conducting another round of positive vetting as a result of Ian’s new appointment as C, but if Eva was half the intelligence officer she was supposed to be, she would certainly check this out. Much better to say they were conducting an unspecified investigation on behalf of the Cabinet Office and offer her the cabinet secretary as a contact point.