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Ackroyd.”
    Shaw asked, “This’d be a kidnap job—I mean, his personal loyalty’s not in doubt?”
    “Oh, good heavens, no! He’s a first-rate man, and his security record’s absolutely clear. Wouldn’t be on that particular job otherwise. Every one’s hand-picked—there’s none of the usual Spanish labour on this job, either.”
    Shaw said, “He’ll be pretty carefully watched in Gib, surely? It sounds rather a tough job for one woman.”
    “Not for Karina,” observed Latymer smoothly, “as you should know. Don’t forget she’s damned attractive as well as clever—that counts. She’s worked for us, so she knows something of our methods, and of Admiralty routines. She’s got plenty of friends in high places, and she doesn’t work singlehanded.”
    “True enough, sir.” Shaw pulled at a fresh cigarette, frowned. “I still think she’s taking on something pretty big, though.”
    Latymer warned, “Don’t underestimate what she can do. Now—if she does succeed a very vital chain of fuel-supply units will almost certainly be dished, unless another Mr Ackroyd turns up providentially, which isn’t likely. There just isn’t anyone else of his calibre at the moment, anyway. As a matter of fact, it’s only since we had this intelligence about Karina that high authority has got slightly upset over the way Ackroyd has managed to keep his knowledge to himself—keep himself as the King Pin, with practically nothing delegated. I gather it’s been a mixture of empire-building on his part and a certain amount of laissez-faire on the part of people who should have known better— that, and the chronic shortage of star-quality physicists like Ackroyd. I can’t emphasize this too much, Shaw: if anything happened to him it would be just about the biggest slice of our defence—or perhaps I’d almost better call it our re-emergence strategy—gone for a burton. It’s as vital as that. The main part of your job would be to see that Karina doesn’t succeed, to watch her and Ackroyd as closely as you can. The other part would be to keep a very careful but discreet general eye on the whole project during a very important test which is due to start soon, and will cover three or four days—but, as I say, Ackroyd himself is your main worry. You see, he’s got to open up other bases after Gibraltar and w e just can’t do without him.”
    Shaw rubbed the side of his nose reflectively. Latymer went on:
    ‘‘ Officially , there’s nothing we can do about Karina so long as she remains on the Spanish side of the frontier— for one thing, this project is so hush-hush that the P.M., on Foreign Office advice, won’t sanction any diplomatic representations being made to Franco. But an agent working into Spain from Gibraltar incognito can at least keep his ear to the ground and forestall anything she may be planning. As usual, I’m not going to give you any hard and fast instructions, but Carberry will fill in the details and give you any practical help you think necessary.” The steely eyes gazed hard into Shaw. “Well? What about it?”
    A little wearily Shaw said,    “All right, sir. I’ll go.”
    “Good man!” Latymer’s pleasure was obvious. “And thank you—it’s a load off my mind, though I knew you wouldn’t let me down really. Now—cover.” He sat back again, studied Shaw through smoke. “You know something about naval armament supply.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Still au fait enough to pass as an Inspector of Establishments?”
    Shaw nodded. “That’d be easy enough.”
    “Good—I thought so. Well—you’re going on the retired list, temporarily.” Shaw looked startled. Latymer grinned and went on, “I’ll fiddle all that—I’d better back-date it a bit, I think. And anyone who cares to look at the appointments in The Times or the Telegraph will see you’ve left the Service altogether—with a Golden Bowler, if you like! And you’ve been luck enough to fall into a good job because