‘I didn’t think that it was,’ you say. You follow her into the house. This time instead of taking you upstairs to her room she leads you along the hall to the kitchen. There is a pine table with four chairs overlooking the back garden and she waves for you to sit down. ‘Do you want some water?’ she asks.

  ‘I’d prefer tea, if there’s any going.’

  She smiles. ‘Tea, it is.’ She goes over to the kettle and switches it on. ‘Why don’t you tell me everything, from the start,’ she says.

  ‘Everything?’

  ‘It’s been two days since I saw you, Phil. And you look like you’ve been through the wringer. So tell me what happened. We’ve got time.’

  CHAPTER 45

  Telling Adeya everything took the best part of an hour and a half, during which time you drink three mugs of coffee and eat a cheese omelette that she cooked. She serves the omelette with a salad and crusty French bread and she listens as you talk. She’s a good listener. She doesn’t interrupt or ask questions, she just listens and nods. Her eyes widen as you tell her about falling from the yacht but still she doesn’t say anything.

  You finish the story just as you’re finishing the omelette. ‘Wow,’ she says. It’s the first thing she says since you started the story.

  ‘Yeah, it’s been an action-packed few days,’ you say.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  You shrug. ‘I’m holding myself together. I just feel that I’ve lost all control of my life. Everything is swirling around and it feels that there’s nothing I can do to influence what’s happening to me.’

  ‘Have you remembered everything?’

  You nod. ‘Yes. Everything.’

  ‘And you work for MI5? You’re a spy?’

  ‘I was working for MI5 but I’m a cop. With the NCA. The National Crime Agency. I was attached to the Proceeds of Crime Centre. My boss was a guy called Tony McMullen. He’s the one who came up with the investment sting and set up the whole Robert Johnston character. But the investigation grew and grew and it got so big that MI5 took over.’

  ‘So why don’t you go to MI5? Or talk to this McMullen guy?’

  You take a deep breath and hold it. What Adeya is suggesting is the obvious thing to do. The problem is that you don’t know who you can trust. And if you make the wrong call, you could end up dead.

  ‘What’s wrong, Phil?’ she asks, putting her hand on yours.

  You decide you need to tell her everything. She’s the only person you can trust. ‘When they came to rob me, they came in through the front of the house. My study overlooks the back garden so if they’d come that way I would have seen them. There were no windows open so they must have come through the front door. Which means they must have had a key.’

  ‘Or they picked the lock?’

  ‘They were high security locks. Difficult to pick.’

  ‘But not impossible?’

  ‘Okay, yes. Maybe. But I’m pretty sure they had a key. And if they did have a key, where could they have got it from? Someone within the NCA or MI5. Those are the only possibilities.’

  ‘So you think someone within the NCA or MI5 is working with the Russians?’

  You sigh as you get your thoughts in order. ‘Let me tell you what happened,’ you say. ‘There were four of them. Maggie, Peter, Tom and Billy, though I didn’t know their names then and they were all wearing ski masks. Tom had the gun and he did most of the threatening, telling me that he was going to shoot me if I didn’t do as he said. I was quite calm. I think I knew that they weren’t actually going to kill me. There’d be no point. They wanted the money and if they killed me they’d never get it. I tried reasoning with them, I explained that it wasn’t my money but that it belonged to some very heavy Russians and if they stole from them they’d be tracked down and killed. Maggie said that they’d worry about the repercussions and that I should do as I was told. Tom pistol-whipped me, across the back of my head. And then Peter produced a pair of bolt cutters. Then Billy held me down while Peter took off my socks and all the time Tom had the gun pointed at my head. Peter put the bolt cutters around the little toe of my left foot and began screaming that he’d do it and I believed him. I said that I’d do what they wanted.’ You force a smile. ‘I’m attached to my toes.’

  ‘Everyone is,’ she says with a grin. ‘You said you were calm. I’d have been terrified.’

  ‘I was scared, sure. But I understood the logic. They wouldn’t kill me if they didn’t have the money, and they wouldn’t hurt me providing I was doing what they wanted. So long as I continued to tap on the keyboard, I was safe.’

  ‘You were playing for time?’

  ‘I remember wondering what I could do. There was nobody in the house who could help me and with a gun pointed at my head I couldn’t see any way of calling for the cavalry. So I sat at the desk and tapped on the keyboard as my mind raced. Maggie came to stand behind me as I worked. She was looking at my screens but she didn’t seem to understand what I was doing. She kept asking questions. I told her that most of the accounts had time locks, you had to wait a specified time before you could access them and they all needed biometrics for full access.’

  ‘Is that true?’

  You shake your head. ‘No, but I wanted to know how much she knew about offshore accounts. It wasn’t much apparently. I waited until she was looking away from the screen and I sent an email to Waller.’

  ‘Your boss at MI5?’

  ‘Not really my boss. I was still employed by the National Crime Agency, I was only seconded to MI5, but Waller had always said that if I was in trouble, he was the first person I was to call. I had his mobile number but there was no way they were going to let me use a phone, so email was all I had. Anyway, I dashed him off an email while she was talking to Peter then got back to tapping on the keyboard. A few minutes later and Tom’s phone rang. He took the call and then rushed over to me and smashed me on the back of the head with his gun, so hard that I fell out of my chair, out for the count. When I came to, Tom was pointing the gun at my face and his finger was on the trigger. I was groggy but he was telling them that I called for help. He screamed that he was going to kill me but Maggie yelled at him to calm down. Then I grabbed the gun with both hands and twisted it up. His finger was still on the trigger and as we struggled the gun went off. The shot hit him in the chest and he went limp. I panicked, I tried to get up but Peter ran over and hit me with something. I blacked out and when I came to Peter was standing over me with the gun and Maggie was talking to someone on the phone. She was explaining what happened. Peter yelled at me and threatened to shoot me but Maggie told him to calm down and said that there was a new plan. She said they had to get out of the house because the neighbours might have heard the shots. They needed to get away before the cops turned up. They made me carry Tom downstairs and put him in the back of my car and then they told me to drive. Maggie sat in the front with the gun pointed at my stomach. Peter sat in the back and Billy drove off in the car that they’d presumably arrived in.’

  ‘Where were they taking you?’ asks Adeya.

  It’s a good question, but not one that you can answer. ‘They never said. They just gave me directions. Turn left. Turn right. Straight ahead. Then when we got on the M25 we had the crash.’

  ‘So you remember the crash now?’

  You force a smile. ‘I remember everything.’

  ‘So what happened on the M25?’

  ‘It was partly my fault. Maggie started to accuse me of speeding, she said I was trying to get caught on speed cameras.’

  ‘Were you?’

  You can’t help but smile. ‘I was. I couldn’t think of anything else to do. There are often unmarked speed cops on the M25 so I was hoping that if I was speeding we’d get pulled over. And if we weren’t pulled over, at least they’d have my picture. Anyway she started jabbing the gun in my side and I pushed her away. Then Peter grabbed me by the hair and yanked my head back and at the same time a car cut me off. I swerved to the left but there was a truck parked on the hard shoulder ahead of me so I stamped on the brake but Peter still had my head yanked back and my hands came off the wheel.The next thing I remember is being upside down and the emergency services pulling me out.’

  ‘You were lucky,’ she says. ‘You could so easily have been killed.’

  You smile at her. She is clearly very worried about you. ‘You’re missing the big picture,’ you say.

  She frowns. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I sent Martin Waller an email saying that I was in trouble, And within minutes Tom’s phone rang and they knew what I was doing.’

  Her jaw drops. ‘You think Waller told them?’

  ‘It can’t be a coincidence, can it?’

  ‘But he works for MI5.’

  ‘MI5 has had more than its fair share of traitors over the years.’ You hold up a hand. ‘But I’m not a thousand per cent sure, obviously. I suppose it’s possible that someone else intercepted the email.But whether it was Waller or someone else at MI5, it means I can’t trust anybody. Especially now that I know where the money is.’

  ‘And where is it?’

  You smile. ‘I switched all the funds into Bitcoin and moved it into a dozen separate wallets. The wallet addresses are way too complicated to memorise so I took screen shots and hid them in a file on my hard drive. If I can get the file I can retrieve the money.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘Then at least I’ll be negotiating from a position of strength. Before, when I’d lost my memory, they knew that torturing me wouldn’t do any good. But that whole dynamic has changed and if they do torture me...’ You shrug and leave the sentence unfinished.

  ‘What about going to the police? Your boss at the NCA?’

  ‘I don’t know who I can trust any more, Adeya. I went out to Dubai to talk to two of the oligarchs, and I went as Rob Johnston. But they knew I was undercover. They knew I was a cop. And the only people who could have told them work for either the NCA or MI5. That’s the only way they could have known.’

  ‘Why would anyone in MI5 or the NCA betray you?’ she asks.

  ‘That’s easy. Money. Cold, hard cash. We’re talking about three billion dollars here. That could turn anyone’s head. And at the moment, I’m the only one who knows how to access the money, which makes me vulnerable. But if I put the information on a thumb drive, there’s no need to hurt or kill me. Their attention switches from me to it and hopefully I can get on with my life.’

  ‘So what do you want, exactly?’

  ‘I want you to drive me back to my house and help me retrieve the files.’

  She smiles. ‘You could have just called an Uber.’

  You can’t help but smile back. ‘True. But I wanted to see you.’

  ‘That’s good to know. For a moment I was starting to think that you only saw me as transport.’

  ‘I see you as a lot more than that,’ you say. You lean forward and kiss her on the lips. She returns the kiss, slipping her hand around the back of your neck to pull you closer.

  CHAPTER 46

  Adeya slows as you approach the house. You scan the cars that are parked in the road outside but you don’t see any red flags. ‘Shall we go in the same way as last time?’ Adeya asks. She has changed into dark clothing - a black polo neck sweater, grey fleece, black leggings and black knee-length boots. Cat burglar chic.

  ‘I think so. I mean, I know it’s my house now but I still don’t have any keys.’

  She drives to the spot where she parked last time and switches off the engine. The semi detached house still appears to be empty but just to be on the safe side she goes to the front door alone and rings the bell. When it’s clear that no one is going to go answer, you join her and together you slip across the lawn and through the hedge. You walk quickly over to the terrace and slide the patio door open. You step inside the study and you pull the door closed. You both look around in silence. The room seems to be exactly as it was when you left it.

  ‘I could cook, after I’m done with the computer,’ you say and she nods.

  ‘That’d be great,’ she says.

  ‘And I really think that this time I deserve champagne.’

  ‘You definitely do,’ she says. ‘And now that your memory is back, I suppose you’ll go back to being a meat-eater.’

  ‘Actually no, I’m happy being a vegetarian,’ you say. ‘Though I might join you in pescatarianism. Is that a word?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she says. ‘But I get what you mean. Shall I make us tea before you get started?’

  ‘We could go straight to champagne.’

  ‘I told you, I don’t drink.’

  ‘We’re not drinking, we’re celebrating. The return of my memory, and hopefully an end to this nightmare.’

  She frowns and for a second you think she’s going to turn down your offer but then she smiles. ‘Why not?’

  You follow her through to the kitchen. She takes a bottle of Cristal from the fridge while you get two champagne flutes from a cupboard. She gives you the bottle and you uncork it with a deft twist. ‘You’ve done that a few times,’ she says.

  ‘I have,’ you say. ‘I always figured that if my career as a police officer stalled I could get a job as a sommelier.’ You clink your glass against hers. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For being here. When I needed you.’

  She grins. ‘You’re welcome.’

  We sip our champagne and then walk back to the study. You sit down in the high-backed executive chair. ‘Here we go,’ you say. You switch on the computer and it asks you for a password. This time you know exactly what to type. It’s a combination of ten numbers and characters, difficult to crack. The words BIOMETRIC CHECK flash up and you stare at the camera set into the middle of the three monitors. The system checks your iris and a large green tick fills the screen before giving way to the desktop display.

  Adeya sits on one of the sofas and crosses her legs. ‘Is everything okay?’ she asks.

  ‘Perfect,’ you say. You click on a folder titled CONTRACTS and it opens to reveal fifty-odd more folders. You click on a folder titled AMENDMENTS and that reveals another fifty-odd folders, most of them identified by a letter-number combination. The folder you want is titled CR-111. It doesn’t stand for anything and the chances of anyone coming across it during a search would be almost nil. An AI search engine might be up to the job, but finding the particular files you have hidden there would mean accessing thousands of folders and reading them all.

  The folder CR-111 contains twelve screenshots, each of a bitcoin wallet address. The individual addresses were all between 26 and 35 characters long, with a combination of numbers and uppercase and lowercase letters. Each address started with bc1, known as a Bech32 address, the most up to date format which offers improved security and efficiency. ‘Bingo,’ you say.

  ‘You’ve got it?’ asks Adeya.

  ‘Oh yes.’ You pull open one of the desk drawers and take out a small thumb drive. You insert it into the CPU and start transferring the screenshots over. It takes less than a minute. You pull out the thumb drive and wave it in the air. ‘All done,’ you say.

  The door to the study swings open. ‘I’ll take that, Phil,’ says a voice, catching you by surprise. Your jaw drops as you look over at Martin Waller, and it drops further when you see the gun in his hands. A Glock. Fitted with a bulbous silencer.

  You grit your teeth as you stare at Waller. Then you look over at Adeya, who is shifting uncomfortably on the sofa. She looks down, avoiding your stare. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispers.

  ‘You’ve nothing to apologise for, sweetheart,’ says Waller. ‘You were just doing your job.’ He holds out his left hand to you. ‘Hand it over.’

  ‘What are you going to do with it?’ you ask.

  ‘That’s none of your business.’ He clicks his fingers. ‘We haven’t got all day.’

  You look at the thumb drive for a couple of seconds, then you toss it over to him. It falls short and lands on the carpet a few feet in front of him. ‘You did that on purpose,’ he says sourly.

  ‘I’ve always thrown like a girl,’ you say.

  He keeps the gun pointed at your chest and takes a step forward, then slowly bends down, his eyes fixed on you. He glances down for a second, then grabs the thumb drive and straightens up. He smiles triumphantly as he holds the thumb drive aloft. ‘It’s funny how three billion dollars can weigh so little,’ he says.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ you ask. You get to your feet but Waller waves the gun at you. ‘Sit down,’ he says.

  You hesitate and he levels the gun at your chest. ‘I’m not messing around here. Sit down or I’ll put a bullet in your chest.’

  You do as you’re told. ‘I was going to bring it to you, I just wanted to make sure that I could actually remember where I put the file.’ You force a tight smile. ‘Figured you wouldn’t be happy if I brought you here on a wild goose chase.’

  He shakes his head. ‘Nice try, Phil, but we both know that’s not true.’

  You sit back in the chair and sigh. ‘What happened to you? When did you join the dark side?’

  He sneers at you. ‘Are you serious? There’s three billion dollars here. Three billion. And it’s mine now.’

  ‘We both know that’s not true, Martin. That money belongs to some very, very dangerous people.’ You force a smile. ‘You sent me to meet them, remember?’

  ‘Nothing wrong with my memory, Phil.’

  ‘So what makes you think they won’t come for what’s theirs?’

  ‘Well I’m hardly likely to broadcast the fact that their money is in my hands, am I?’

  Adeya turns to look at him, clearly confused by what’s happening. ‘Martin?’

  ‘Hush, sweetheart. This will all be over soon.’

  ‘So she doesn’t know what’s been going on?’ you say.

  ‘Oh, Rayowa is one of our hardest working officers,’ he says.