By the time Daniel had left the senior man’s house in the light of early dawn, they had worked out the rudimentary beginnings of a plan. He checked his watch, a few minutes after five. There was no way he could make it home to sleep before having to head into the office, so he straightened his tie and decided to go and sleep at his desk.
The walk through the not yet quite awake city was a pleasant enough experience for Daniel and he decided to make it more pleasurable by diverting through Hyde Park. He entered off the Bayswater Road, walked down past the Serpentine, exited by Wellington Arch, into Green Park, across the front of Buckingham Palace, then down to Westminster over the bridge and on until he arrived at the office. 100 Westminster Bridge Road, Century House, the worst best kept secret headquarters in the history of spying.
He bought cigarettes from the petrol station on the ground floor and headed upstairs. It was almost six thirty, he had two hours until the secretaries arrived and three before his superiors appeared doing the morning inspections of their teams. He would need to be awake by then.