Angol
Trust everyone. Suspect everyone. Pack accordingly.
Benedict Friar was 'remade' once, in a small room, by the men he called his own - and has never since been certain which of his loyalties are his and which were quietly installed. Six thousand miles from the Caribbean veranda where he tried to vanish, the Service wants him back for a single morning's work: a handover in an empty schoolyard, a courier, a package.
The package is the Compass Rose key - satellite frequencies that could put a warhead in the hand of anyone who holds them. The price is one child, brought out alive. And the woman offering the trade may be telling the truth, which would be the most dangerous thing of all.
From a cold grey crossing to a tidal fortress in the Hebrides, Friar follows the key north - past a mole who grieves a brother, a matched pair of killers who may not be brothers at all, and a singer who remembers the man he was before they took him apart.
In this trade, everyone offers a gift. Friar's whole art is knowing which ones are poison.
The second Benedict Friar novel. In the tradition of Fleming and le Carré - and, like the key itself, best not taken on trust.
