4
‘I’m building alliances,’ said Zareen a little later, once George Mercer had gone. ‘Which is the first thing anybody in our situation would do. What can we expect to achieve with exactly three people?’
Jay was not impressed. ‘You couldn’t have consulted us about this brilliant plan?’
Zareen wasn’t impressed either. ‘You couldn’t have chosen a different pub to have dinner? Or did you think George couldn’t see you sitting there?’
Jay shot me a look, which I interpreted to mean it was all my fault.
‘Mercer was never going to believe you just wanted to see him, whether we were there or not,’ I said, in my own defence.
‘Quite,’ said Zareen shortly. ‘And I wanted to distract him. Note all those questions he was asking?’ She smiled mirthlessly. ‘You were listening?’
‘We were,’ I said. ‘A
