And then on the small screen came a face Morland once knew better than his own. He hadn’t seen Nicola Allenby since leaving Oxford. Brilliant—she’d left Oxford with the best First in Computer Science and Philosophy of her year—intriguing, funny and with the sporty good looks you’d expect from a former head girl of Cheltenham Ladies College, she was also a talented linguist; fluent in Russian, Polish and German from her upbringing as a diplomat’s daughter. One of the many girls attracted by the physical challenge of the Oxford University Officer Training Corps, she had fallen for the rough diamond from the West Midlands. Inevitably, and as their relationship deepened, she had started smoothing off his many rough edges and in no time he was utterly devoted to her and she, it seemed, to him.

Then, at a May Ball, Morland had done something he had instantly regretted. He had thumped the brother of one of Allenby’s friends; a chinless land agent from Cirencester, up for the party, who’d all too easily wound up Morland with disparaging remarks about “chavs” from the Midlands. The fact that the guy had clearly fancied Nicola had a lot to do with his reaction, but something had changed in her in the instant that he had stepped in to protect her. For the next few days she was unusually unavailable. Then she had texted and asked to meet him for coffee in Brown’s. She had not even started to drink the cappuccino he had just bought her before she had announced that they had no future together and walked out of the café.

“Meet our new GCHQ liaison officer, Tom,” said Dingley on the VTC. “Over to you, Nicky.”

“We’ve met before . . . at Oxford. Good to see you again, Tom. Although the VTC picture is a bit hazy.”

Morland could hear the cool professionalism in her voice. “I’ve got a clear enough picture of you from here. All that matters is that we can hear each other. Can you help us?” Morland was brisk and giving away nothing.

“Give me as much detail as you can and we’ll start tracking down the network.”

Morland handed over to Krauja who briefed in detail on the extent of Russian infiltration of the Latvian Russian Union, together with what was known about plans for the next day’s pro-Russian speakers demonstration. She also highlighted Latvian concerns about a counter-demonstration by Latvian nationalists. “We think the Russians are winding each side up to cause civil disturbances and give them an excuse to intervene to protect their own people. Just as they did in Crimea and now in eastern Ukraine.”

“I understand.” Allenby was matter of fact and was clearly not going to give anything away about the British position on Latvia’s concerns. “I’ll talk to my team at GCHQ and ensure my senior people are fully in the picture.”