‘Doing nothing will be seen as weakness,’ supported Frolov. He was another man who considered a gun his third hand; before breaking away to form his own Family, just before the collapse of communism, he’d been Sobelov’s chief enforcer.

‘I don’t think it’s a good idea at the moment to draw too much attention to ourselves,’ said Silin.

‘From whom?’ sneered the exasperated Sobelov. ‘The Militia! More policemen work for us than for the Interior Ministry!’ He answered the smiles of the others at his sarcasm with a grimace of his own. Emboldened, he said, ‘And what the hell’s timing got to do with it?’

‘Everything,’ said Silin. ‘I want to concentrate on the biggest single nuclear robbery there’s ever been.’ And by so doing, he thought, prove to everyone that things should stay just the way they were, apart from the changes he had in mind.

Fifteen hundred miles away, in London, the problem of things staying just the way they were was occupying the mind of Charlie Muffin. It had been, for weeks, but at that moment an internal messenger had just handed him the summons and said, ‘Tough shit, Charlie. Looks like you’re next.’

chapter 2

T he last time Charlie Muffin had felt like he did at that moment he’d been standing in front of a red-robed judge about to be sentenced. And had been, to the maximum of fourteen years, unaware what the buggers were really up to.

There wasn’t anything to work out today. The Cold War had melted into a puddle of different political bed partners and different priorities and the worst change of all affected poor bastards like him. So it was all over, lock, stock, barrel and boot. There’d already been the two seminars, addressed personally by the Director-General with all the deputies and division chiefs nodding in solemn-faced agreement to all the bullshit about fresh roles for a streamlined service. And immediately after the second conference there’d been the appointment of a relocation officer, with promises of alternative employment in other government ministries or advice on commuting pensions.