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November 2002, the Holiday Inn, London Victoria Station.

In a beige meeting room with a scuffed blue carpet,

Eamon Dean screws up his face in disgust as he sips the hotel coffee and reaches for another sachet of sugar.

He's flown in from Bahrain for this meeting.

Surely MI6's budget could stretch to some decent coffee.

His new MI6 handler, Freddy, continues the debriefing.

So they plan to hide the Muktaka devices in backpacks and plant them on the New York subway.

And the nerve gas it releases is a blood agent, correct?

Yes. Victims experience convulsions, then lung and heart failure five to 15 minutes after high dose exposure.

It's a pretty horrible way to die.

Freddy pushes his floppy blonde hair away from his eyes.

And how many of these chemical bombs are they planning to using the attack?

I don't know exactly, but it will be multiple.

Most likely they will detonate them on a train

when it's going through a tunnel or near ventilation shafts in the stations.

Jesus.

Couldn't you have played for time before confirming the design for the Mubtaka was correct?

Dean is irritated that Freddy is trying to second-guess him.

"'Akeel is a chemistry teacher. I can't fool him with false information.'

"'Okay, I get it.'

Dean misses his former handler, Richard.

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