TWENTY-THREE
WHITEHALL, LONDON, OCTOBER 2021 AD
What could go wrong? Secret Agent, ZX, sat and stared out of his office window over the busy road, to the gloomy grey sky and the mist-shrouded Thames. How could a visit to an old schoolfriend in HM Prison, Wakefield, the largest high-security gaol in the UK, be misconstrued? He could argue that Conrad Maxwell was down on his luck and could use a break. ZX acknowledged that Maxwell had loyally kept the Secret Agent’s name out of the inquiry surrounding the capture and torturing of Jake Conley. The least he could do for an old friend—and as it turned out, a true patriot who had lost an eye in the cause of promoting a more civilised society—was to get him out of the monster mansion.
The spectacular success of the Conley appointment might wel
