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wearing a hairy tweed jacket, and a blonde, pale-faced young woman detective constable with looks reminiscent of Barbra Streisand. At the first introduction I missed her name, but it turned out to be Karen Terraine.

In the ops room Mac gave the newcomers a short brief. Fraser's most urgent request was for a room that could act as a control centre for the duration of the incident: somewhere with secure comms in which his own staff and the CID could work alongside each other, with immediate recourse to the military if they needed it. The request presented no problem, because up there, on the first floor of the Kremlin, one room was kept ready for just such an emergency. After a quick look, the commander pronounced it ideal.

Mac realised that the visitors' next most pressing need was to get some food and drink down their necks, so he handed Fraser a print-out of the statement I'd given earlier in the night and despatched us all to the sergeants' mess for breakfast.

As the others started down the stairs I hung back with Mac and asked, 'How much can I tell him, Boss?'

'Anything he wants to know,' he replied. 'With Special Branch, no problem.'

Until that moment I hadn't felt hungry, but as I led the party through the dining room towards the kitchen counter, the smell of bacon brought my appetite alive, and I got myself a big fry-up: two eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes, tomatoes - the lot. So did Fraser and his sergeant, but I noticed that the woman DC, who had a cracking figure, stuck to tea and a piece of toast.

For privacy we took over a separate table, and as we sat down I saw Fraser look at me in an appraising but sympathetic way. 'Just in from South America, are you?'

'That's right.'

'Not a very nice homecoming, I'm afraid.'

I suddenly felt choked, so I simply shook my head.

'Not to worry- we'll get the villains sorted. You may not know, but there's a major incident plan permanently in place for just this kind of emergency.

Within that framework there are three planned responses - one for airport hijack, one for siege and one for hostage-rescue. In your case, the hostage recovery plan, Operation Beehive, is already under way.'

'Sounds OK. But what does it involve?'

'In this case, surveillance on all flights to Ireland, north and south. Increased surveillance on suspected I1LA players resident in this country, and increased surveillance on safe houses used by them. Numerous other checks. We'll be looking to see if certain characters are going about their business as normal, or whether they appear to have taken a sudden holiday.

We'll put word out through our touts that special payments are in prospect for the right information. Of course, I can't promise anything - but what I can tell you is that our responses are frequently tested on major exercises, and we're confident they work. Now - wait while I read these notes.'

Nobody spoke while Fraser went through the printout, eating as he read. Then he brought out a mobile phone, dialled, turned away from us, and had a short conversation, his voice too low for me to hear.

Turning back, he said, 'I just threw three or four names into the frame. What about this fellow Farrell?

What was he doing in Colombia?'

I gave him an outline of what had happened: how, after Farrell and his colleagues had lifted our rupert and two diplomats from a restaurant near the British Embassy in Bogoti, our follow-up attempt to rescue them had taken us to a brand-new laboratory built deep in the jungle. Fraser listened carefully as I explained how the woman had been killed and the two men saved, but I sensed that his real interest lay in Ulster.

'When your wife was killed.., how did you find out who was behind the bomb?'

'Through contacts in the RUC.'

'Who do you know there?'

'A man called Morrison, mainly - a chief superintendent. He came over to lecture us when we were on the Northern Ireland course.'

'Morrison, Morrison… I know him. A good man, that; he'll help us. Are there any