Jonas Merrick

In the office at MI5 where he works, they call Jonas Merrick 'the eternal flame'. It isn't a compliment. It's because he never goes out. He never goes undercover, never does surveillance, never goes with the teams that kick down the doors or seize the suspects off the street. He commutes into work and sits at his desk and then he goes home. But Jonas has qualities the hot-shots fail to notice: a steely concentration, a ruthless ability to focus and find the enemy hiding in plain sight.

Is the information they bring worth the cost of protecting them for the rest of their lives? Is it even genuine? Might they be double agents? These are some of the questions facing MI6 when a Russian agent hands himself in to them in Denmark. As a team begins to assess his value, his former employers in the Kremlin develop a brutal plan to show that no defector will ever be safe. And they know where to find him. Which means there must be a mole in MI6.

Jonas Merrick—a legendary intelligence analyst for MI5—has been banished to the Post Room of Thames House. There, he is expected to pass his remaining days before inevitable retirement. In a Russian gulag, an MI6 agent has developed an unlikely passion for a prisoner and has come up with an ingenious plan to free her. The key: a ruthless Albanian gang laundering the dirty money of the Russian elite. Merrick, the only agent with the experience to help, is brought back once again to intercept the Albanian courier until an exchange is organised by the Russians.