Their eyes on me, Tilson's, Hyde's, in the lamplight, in the silence of the room.

'No,' I said, 'there are no further conditions.'

Hyde broke his stare. 'You accept the mission?'

'Yes.'

'Then we must be going,' he said. 'We're to meet these people at the Foreign Office as soon as we can get there. Did you come in your car?'

'Yes.'

'Will you take me there?'

'Of course.'

'Taxis are so laggardly. Tilson, will you set everything up? I'll brief Quiller as soon as we're back, then you can put him through Clearance.'

On our way down Whitehall in the car, Hyde sat with his bulk hunched against the passenger door, watching the road and sometimes watching me as he talked.

'Go right here.' I turned into Victoria Street. 'Keep going,' he said.

'Not the Foreign Office?'

'We just said the Foreign Office, but actually no. Too many moles. This matter, you see, is rather important, and we don't want people listening. Since you are now committed, I can give you the whole thing in a nutshell. If all goes to plan, we should be able to overthrow the Communist regime in Beijing and establish a democratic government within a matter of days.'

Chapter 2: Underground

There was the smell of burned metal from the high voltage contacts, and the black mouth of the tunnel was lit intermittently by the flash of a welder's torch; I suppose there was a night crew along there, working on the rails. Here on the platform the scene was more formal: most of the people were in dark overcoats and two of them had rolled umbrellas. I was in a polo sweater and padded bomber jacket, since they'd got me out of my flat in such a hurry.

There were some men hanging around the mouth of the tunnel and the archway to the escalators; on our way down here, Hyde had told me the scene was protected by plainclothes police. 'We mustn't be disturbed, you see. I suppose it's odd,' he'd said, 'that in order to avoid any moles we're going underground.'