As though she had heard everything, Harry raised her head at this, staring towards him with a righteous look on her face. Hepton put down the telephone and sank into his chair, feeling not at all comfortable in his own home. He pinched the bridge of his nose, then straightened up.

‘So what do you want to know?’ he said.

‘What I really want, Martin,’ Harry began, ‘is not so much to be told as to do the telling. As I said before, there probably isn’t much you could tell me that I don’t know already. You should be aware, however, that this is a matter of national security. It sounds like a cliché these days, but I’m in absolute earnest. It is in everyone’s interest for you to forget whatever Paul Vincent told you.’

‘Told me about what?’

Her look was that of a disappointed schoolmistress, some favoured pupil having let her down. Hepton stared at her evenly.

‘Told you,’ she said, ‘that he had noticed something on his monitor.’

‘Then there was something up there?’

‘Certainly there was … interference. We’re looking into it.’

‘But who’s “we”?’

‘You could say that I do PR work for the armed forces.’

‘Public relations?’ Hepton sounded doubtful. Harry shrugged. ‘But I don’t understand,’ he persisted. ‘What have the army got to do with it?’ Then he remembered. Zephyr was watching for civil unrest during the US pull-out. The army must be on standby, of course.

‘As a matter of interest, Martin, what do you think happened?’

‘Me?’ Hepton seemed genuinely surprised. ‘Why should anyone be interested in what I think?’ He remembered his final sighting of Paul Vincent, looking scared and beaten. For some reason, the memory stirred him to anger. ‘I’ll tell you what I think,’ he said. ‘I think you know less than you’re saying, not more.’ He was out of his seat now, standing over her. ‘I think you should get out and leave me alone. That’s what I think. And if I want to tell anybody about all of this, then I’ll damned well tell them.’

She stood too, her eyes on a level with his. Her face had tightened, and there were spots of red on either cheek. Her voice when she spoke was as cold and lifeless as a deep freeze.

‘Of course you must do whatever you see fit. I’ll get my jacket.’ He followed her to the kitchen and watched her put the jacket on. She surveyed the newly cleaned work surfaces. ‘Neat and tidy,’ she said, ‘that’s how I like things, Martin.’

‘Is that a threat?’