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Conrad’s figure across the road as he ran along the park railing at a gentle pace.
    Shadowing him on my side of the road, I jogged in parallel, but staying a few steps behind. After he disappeared through the park gate, I counted to five, saw a space in the traffic and sprinted to the middle. A taxi screamed past me. Crap, I forgot they drove on the wrong side of the road. Once safely across, I made for the gate Conrad had taken.
    Concealed behind a tree, I watched as he trotted in the direction of the Serpentine lake. I set off down the Broadwalk, keeping him in my line of sight at all times. It was too open for me to follow him directly. A little further south, the added cover of shrubs and trees let me cross westward past the bandstand towards the lake. I closed up on him, but keeping a healthy distance between us. Was he simply out jogging? Where did he get the energy after last night?
    I followed him across the bridge, hiding in a small group of other runners. If he looked around, I didn’t want him spotting me. He started back along the south bank, switching on to Rotten Row and diverting through the formal gardens and stopping eventually on the east side of some Greek warrior statue. He affected some stretching exercises, but by now I had caught him up and was hiding only a few metres away behind a tall shrub.
    He tracked an imaginary line running from the middle post around the statue and a tall chestnut tree at the park railing. He turned to look at the statue itself, but all the while glancing around him checking that nobody else was in view. His hand came up and he rubbed his fingers along the hairline above his right eye. Gotcha! Now I knew he was up to something. Love him as I did, I thought his tradecraft was sloppy. He strolled over to the tree, sat at the base of the trunk and made a call on his cellphone.
    A vibrating buzz from my pocket answered. It sounded as loud as a jackhammer drill. I leapt up, sprinted away to a safe distance out of earshot, careful to remain just out of his line of sight. I found a shrub to crouch down by.
    ‘Oh, hi,’ I answered.
    ‘You sound out of breath. Are you all right?’
    ‘No, I’m fine. You surprised me. I was in the bathroom when you called. I just swallowed some water.’
    He laughed. ‘Well, take it easy. I’ll be back in about ten.’
    I signed off and crept forward a few centimetres. Conrad pocketed his cell, then too casually laid his hand on the tree root. His fingers contracted, darted under the root and picked something up. He stood up, put it in his pocket and jogged off.
    I made it back only seconds ahead of him, threw my sweats under the bed and ran into the shower where he found me. Thank Juno, he didn’t hear my heart thumping with the exertion of getting back first. Leaving him to finish, I skipped out of the bathroom and found his discarded sweats on the floor. I hesitated. Surely I could trust him. I pulled the towel from my hair and started rubbing it dry. I stared at the sweats again. It was too tempting. In Conrad’s pocket I found two pieces of paper stapled together; a handwritten letter in precise blue ballpoint ink and Andrew Brudgland’s report.
    *
    We left from Heathrow later that day, arriving at Portus Airport in Roma Nova in the early evening. As we clattered down the steps we were engulfed by hot, humid air. By the time we reached home, my head was starting to throb. Juno knew what it would have been like without air conditioning. Helena and I settled the three wilting children and I looked in on my grandmother, Aurelia. It was late when Conrad and I sat down to supper.
    ‘I’ll wait till morning to check up on work,’ Conrad said, reaching for his glass of beer. ‘I don’t want to disturb Daniel now, especially as he’s tied up getting ready for his anti-terrorism exercise. I had the last contact report this morning, so I can’t think anything drastic has happened since.’
    ‘That’s good, as I want to discuss something