"No. Thanks." I backed the rest of the way to the door and stood there, looking bored.

"A drink, then. Vodka?"

"No."

"Christ, a bloody nun." He pointed to a round table in the middle of the room, with a tin coffeepot on it. "Alright, pour yourself a cup. Maybe it will make this less of a battle. Sort of friendly, like."

"Tell me what you want, or I'm out the door. If this isn't going to lead anywhere productive, I've got better things to do."

"Like what?"

"Like finding something to eat, then going to bed."

"Why are you people always so difficult?"

"Difficult? I think I've heard that before, somewhere. You'll accept my deep apologies, won't you? Must be a lack of breeding. Or civilization, maybe. Yes, probably that, lack of civilization on our part. You are the civilized ones. Obviously, we must learn from you."

He moved his head from side to side, as if he had fixed the problem with his neck but now his shoulders were sore. "Go ahead, leave if you want. Makes no difference to me."

"Will you be going out the front or the back after I'm gone? The front of the building is being watched. We always thought it was yours but weren't sure. Now we are."

His head stopped moving. I could tell he didn't know I had been watching the building for the past few days. Simple surveillance, straight from the Ministry's training manual. I'd seen the technicians come in to get ready for the meeting. I decided to push him a little. "We have a list of every license plate of every car you and your friends have in this city. And when you change plates, which you do from time to time, we know the numbers of the new plates before you receive them."

He was sweating, not much, but the light from the lamp picked it up. I didn't have any list, but it was worth the bluff.

"Piss off." He kept his voice low.