'Nearer the embassy?' I said. She swung a quick look at me in the gloom as we stopped outside a yellow-painted door. 'I'm actually Bureau, agent-in-place, but I work at the embassy in the cypher room. Don't worry, nobody in this building understands English, I made sure of that on my first day here — stood on the landing and shouted Fire! but nobody came out.

This is my place.' She led me into a sitting-room with a Put-U-Up couch and a kitchenette in the corner and a door leading off it.

Make yourself at home. Can I call you Viktor? Me Jane. Would you like a drink or some coffee? Or are you hungry? Did you manage to get any dinner last night?'

I said I was fine.

She unzipped her ski boots and pulled them off and padded about m her thick red woollen socks, going across to a table in the corner and checking for messages. The telephone and the answering machine were linked up with a desk-model scrambler and the green light was on.

'I'm going to make some coffee anyway,' she said as she came away from the phone, 'got to keep my wits about me, haven't I?'

'Have you had any sleep tonight?' It was now gone half-past two.

'Oh, a couple of hours before London came through, I'm compos mentis, don't worry.' A sleepy-looking girl in a thick dressing-gown appeared in the doorway by the kitchenette.' It's all right, go back to bed,' Jane said.

'Who's this?' the girl wanted to know.

'An old friend. Sleep tight — you've got to be up early.'

The girl gave me a lingering look of curiosity and then went back into the bedroom and shut the door.

'Don't worry,' Jane said quietly, 'she's totally witless and never talks to anyone — she wouldn't know what to say. She's at the embassy too, makes the tea. You want to report in, or shall I do it?'