Secret Service by Tom Bradby

Author:Tom Bradby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-05-29T16:00:00+00:00

16

When she got into the house, Fiona and Gus were already asleep, so Kate went straight to bed. But an hour later she was still trying to bury herself in a book when Stuart arrived back.

‘Where did you get to?’ he asked.

‘I was tired. I didn’t think you’d notice my absence.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It’s supposed to mean exactly what it said.’

‘You want to explain to me why you’ve been so weird these past few days?’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

Stuart put his hands on his hips. ‘So now we’re going to do the bit where we pretend we haven’t been married for ever?’

‘We might not be for very much longer if you keep salivating over Imogen twenty-four seven.’

Stuart stared at her. She could tell he was genuinely shocked, and cursed inwardly. She hadn’t meant to say it.

‘What the fuck are you talking about? She’s one of our best friends!’

‘One of your best friends, if we’re being brutally honest.’ Kate immediately regretted saying that, too.

‘Is that why you were so weird when I asked for your help and advice on Russia?’

‘You were inviting me to comment on something I’d told you in literally the deepest confidence – the most sensitive national secret that only five people know.’

‘I was absolutely not! Everyone knows you’re the local Russia expert. I was inviting you to chip in on whether you thought we might be the victims of a well-known modern intelligence warfare strategy. The use of bots and fake accounts has hardly been the deepest, most sensitive, only-five-people-know national secret during God knows how many recent elections, has it?’

His blood was up, but it wasn’t just bluster. She knew she had wounded him, genuinely and unnecessarily. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I had an operation that went very badly wrong in Greece.’ Suddenly she couldn’t stop herself. ‘I recruited a blameless young girl to work for us. Actually, “recruited” is too nice a way of putting it. I blackmailed her into it. And then, in the middle of an operation, she disappeared. Rav and I went looking for her and got ambushed in a stairwell and had to kill our three attackers. Back at the hotel, I had to wash the blood off and change my shirt. I found the girl in my cupboard, with her throat cut. So … I’m probably not in the best frame of mind.’

Stuart was dumbstruck. She watched the emotions sweep through him, anger giving way to incomprehension and then, eventually, pity. ‘Oh, shit, Kate,’ he said. ‘I am really sorry.’

‘No. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.’

He came to sit next to her and rested a hand on her leg. ‘I don’t know what to say. That is … horrible. Are you … all right?’

‘Physically, yes. I’m fine. It’s a long time since I had to fight my way out of a stairwell, but Rav is young, fit and very good. We’re both okay.’

She looked at him. ‘So, yes, you’re on the money.

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