Morland had heard about the Forest Brothers while they’d been training the Special Tasks Unit; it was the name for the thousands of partisans who had taken to the massive forests of the Baltic states to fight a guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation of their countries from the late 1940s, well into the 1950s. Unbelievably, the last Forest Brother had only emerged from the forest in 1995, a full four years after Latvia had gained its independence from the Soviet Union. A fact that had at first astonished Morland who, up until then, had thought it was only the Japanese who had a monopoly on fanatical soldiers refusing to accept defeat. However, his all-too-brief time training the Latvian Special Tasks Unit already had him rethinking that assumption. He would not want these people as his enemy.

Meanwhile, Krauja went outside to call her office on her mobile phone to explain what had happened. She returned looking visibly upset.

“They’ve given me clearance to stay with you, Tom . . . but things are really bad in Riga. The Russians have taken over all the key buildings; there are Russian army road blocks on all the main junctions. They’ve declared a curfew after six p.m., they say they’ll shoot anyone found outside after that time, and they’ve started to round up all the ministers and senior government figures. They’ve taken my boss, Juris Bērziņš.”

“That’s bad,” said Morland awkwardly. “He’s a good man.” He waited a respectful moment before asking about General Balderis, an impressive man who had left a lasting impression on him.

“Last heard of fighting at his Joint HQ . . . apparently nobody got out. If anyone resists they’re not taking prisoners. He told me he had no intention of ending up in Siberia and it sounds as if he won’t be . . . ,” Krauja paused and took a deep breath, getting her emotions back under control. “Now give me a rifle. I’m a Nordic skier and I do the biathlon. I hunt boar and deer with my father, so I can shoot straight.”