“But surely you can see that a man like Dillon must be stopped?”

“Then others must do the stopping. Why Martin, for God’s sake?” She was distressed now and angry. “It’s your job, people like you. This sort of thing is how you make your living.”

Max Hernu came across and picked up a cup of coffee. “But Professor Brosnan is in a special position as regards this business, you must see that, mademoiselle. He knew Dillon intimately, worked with him for years. He could be of great help to us.”

“I don’t want to see him with a gun in his hand,” she said, “and that’s what it would come down to. Once his foot is on that road again, it can only have one end.”

She was very distressed, turned and went through into the kitchen. Mary Tanner went after her and closed the door. Anne-Marie was leaning against the sink, arms folded as if holding herself in, agony on her face.

“They don’t see, do they? They don’t understand what I mean.”

“I do,” Mary said simply. “I understand exactly what you mean,” and as Anne-Marie started to sob quietly, went and put her arms around her.

Brosnan opened the French windows and stood on the terrace by the scaffolding taking in lungfuls of cold air. Ferguson joined him. “I’m sorry for the distress we’ve caused her.”

“No, you’re not, you only see the end in view. You always did.”

“He’s a bad one, Martin.”

“I know,” Brosnan nodded. “A real can of worms the little bastard has opened this time. I must get a smoke.”

He went inside. Hernu was sitting by the fire. Brosnan found a packet of cigarettes, hesitated, then opened the kitchen door. Anne-Marie and Mary were sitting opposite each other, holding hands across the table.

Mary turned. “She’ll be fine. Just leave us for a while.”

Brosnan went back to the terrace. He lit a cigarette and leaned against the balustrade. “She seems quite a lady, that aide of yours. That scar on her left cheek. Shrapnel. What’s her story?”

“She was doing a tour of duty as a lieutenant with the Military Police in Londonderry. Some IRA chap was delivering a car bomb when the engine failed. He left it at the curb and did a runner. Unfortunately, it was outside an old folks’ home. Mary was driving past in a Land-Rover when a civilian alerted her. She got in the car, released the brake and managed to freewheel down the hill on to some wasteland. It exploded as she made a run for it.”

“Good God!”

“Yes, I’d agree, on that occasion. When she came out of hospital she received a severe reprimand for breaking standing orders and the George Medal for the gallantry of her action. I took her on after that.”

“A lot of still waters there.” Brosnan sighed and tossed his cigarette out into space as Mary Tanner joined them.

“She’s gone to lie down in the bedroom.”

“All right,” Brosnan said. “Let’s go back in.” They went and sat down again and he lit another cigarette. “Let’s get this over with. What did you want to say?”

Ferguson turned to Mary. “Your turn, my dear.”

“I’ve been through the files, checked out everything the computer can tell us.” She opened her brown handbag and took out a photo. “The only likeness of Dillon we can find. It’s from a group photo taken at RADA twenty years ago. We had an expert in the department blow it up.”

There was a lack of definition, the texture grainy and the face was totally anonymous. Just another young boy.

Brosnan gave it back. “Useless. I didn’t even recognize him myself.”

“Oh, it’s him all right. The man on his right became quite successful on television. He’s dead now.”

“Not through Dillon?”

“Oh, no, stomach cancer, but he was approached by one of our people back in nineteen eighty-one and confirmed that it was Dillon standing next to him in the photo.”

“The only likeness we have,” Ferguson said. “And no bloody use at all.”

“Did you know that he took a pilot’s license, and a commercial one at that?” Mary said.

“No, I never knew that,” Brosnan said.

“According to one of our informants, he did it in Lebanon some years ago.”

“Why were your people on his case in eighty-one?” Brosnan asked.

“Yes, well, that’s interesting,” she told him. “You told Colonel Hernu that he’d quarreled with the IRA, had dropped out and joined the international terrorist circuit.”

“That’s right.”

“It seems they took him back in nineteen eighty-one. They were having trouble with their active service units in England. Too many arrests, that kind of thing. Through an informer in Ulster we heard that he was operating in London for a time. There were at least three or four incidents attributed to him. Two car bombs and the murder of a police informant in Ulster who’d been relocated with his family in Maida Vale.”

“And we didn’t come within spitting distance of catching him,” Ferguson said.

“Well, you wouldn’t,” Brosnan told him. “Let me go over it again. He’s an actor of genius. He really can change before your eyes, just by use of body language. You’d have to see it to believe it. Imagine what he can do with makeup, hair-coloring changes. He’s only five feet five, remember. I’ve seen him dress as a woman and fool soldiers on foot patrol in Belfast.”

Mary Tanner was leaning forward intently. “Go on,” she said softly.

“You want to know another reason why you’ve never caught him? He works out a series of aliases. Changes hair color, uses whatever tricks of makeup are necessary, then takes his photo. That’s what goes on his false passport or identity papers. He keeps a collection, then when he needs to move, makes himself into the man on the photo.”

“Ingenious,” Hernu said.

“Exactly, so no hope of any help from television or newspaper publicity of the have-you-seen-this-man type. Wherever he goes, he slips under the surface. If he was working in London and needed anything at all-help, weapons, whatever-he’d simply pretend to be an ordinary criminal and use the underworld.”

“You mean he wouldn’t go near any kind of IRA contact at all?” Mary said.

“I doubt it. Maybe someone who’d been in very deep cover for years, someone he could really trust, and people like that are thin on the ground.”

“There is a point in all this which no one has touched on,” Hernu said. “Who is he working for?”

“Well it certainly isn’t the IRA,” Mary said. “We did an instant computer check and we have links with both the RUC computer and British Army Intelligence at Lisburn. Not a smell from anyone about the attempt on Mrs. Thatcher.”

“Oh, I believe that,” Brosnan said. “Although you can never be sure.”

“There are the Iraqis, of course,” Ferguson said. “Saddam would dearly love to blow everyone up at the moment.”

“True, but don’t forget Hizbollah, PLO, Wrath of Allah and a few others in between. He’s worked for them all,” Brosnan reminded him.

“Yes,” Ferguson said. “And checking our sources through that lot would take time and I don’t think we’ve got it.”

“You think he’ll try again?” Mary asked.

“Nothing concrete, my dear, but I’ve been in this business a lifetime. I always go by my instincts, and this time my instincts tell me there’s more to it.”

“Well, I can’t help you there. I’ve done all I can.” Brosnan stood up.

“All you’re prepared to, you mean?” Ferguson said.

They moved into the hall and Brosnan opened the door. “I suppose you’ll be going back to London?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I thought we might stay over and sample the delights of Paris. I haven’t stayed at the Ritz since the refurbishment.”

Mary Tanner said, “That will give the expenses a bashing.” She held out her hand. “Goodbye, Professor Brosnan, it was nice to be able to put a face to the name.”

“And you,” he said. “Colonel,” he nodded to Hernu and closed the door.

When he went into the drawing room Anne-Marie came in from the bedroom. Her face was drawn and pale. “Did you come to any decision?” she asked.