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FOR

HARRY

My thanks for their invaluable advice and research to:

Simon Bainbridge, Alan Gard, Professor Ken Howard RA, Alison Prince, Catherine Richards, Mari Roberts, Dr. Nick Robins, and Susan Watt

And to Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar and Young Stalin, for his advice and scholarship

Beneath the rule of men entirely great

The pen is mightier than the sword

EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON, 1803–1873

PROLOGUE

OCTOBER 1964

Brendan didn’t knock on the cabin door, just turned the handle and slipped inside, looking back as he did so to be sure no one had seen him. He didn’t want to have to explain what a young man from cabin class was doing in an elderly peer’s room at that time of night. Not that anyone would have commented.

“Are we likely to be interrupted?” asked Brendan once he had closed the door.

“No one will disturb us before seven tomorrow morning, and by then there will be nothing left to disturb. ”

“Good,” said Brendan. He dropped on his knees, unlocked the large trunk, pulled open its lid, and studied the complex piece of machinery that had taken him over a month to construct.

He spent the next half hour checking that there were no loose wires, that every dial was at its correct setting, and that the clock started at the flick of a switch. Not until he was satisfied that everything was in perfect working order did he get back off his knees.

“It’s ready,” he said. “When do you want it activated?”

“Three a. m. And I’ll need thirty minutes to remove all this,” the elderly peer added, touching his double chin, “if I’m to have enough time to get to my other cabin. ”

Brendan returned to the trunk and set the timer for three o’clock. “All you have to do is flick the switch just before you leave, and double-check that the second hand is moving, then you’ll have thirty minutes. ”

“So what can go wrong?”

“If the lilies are still in Mrs. Clifton’s cabin, nothing. No one on this corridor, and probably no one on the deck below, can hope to survive. There’s six pounds of dynamite embedded in the soil beneath those flowers, far more than we need, but at least that way we can be sure of collecting our money. ”

“Have you got my key?”

“Yes,” said Brendan. “Cabin 706. You’ll find your new passport and ticket under the pillow. ”

“Anything else I ought to be worrying about?”

“No. Just make sure the second hand is moving before you leave. ”