As instructed, Jake Conley made his way to the northern portico entrance of the Ministry of Defence building at Whitehall. ‘A monument to tiredness’, an eminent architect had called it and as he looked over the two statues of Earth and Water flanking the doorway – familiarly known as ‘the two fat ladies’ to employees, Jake would have empathised with the weariness if his overriding emotion hadn’t been trepidation. He had been dreading the call from the Head of Secret Services, Double-A, since beginning his six-month sabbatical four months ago. A reluctant recruit to the organisation, Jake had come close to premature death on several occasions whilst helping to dismantle Woden’s Brethren, the white supremacist movement, in Yorkshire. The return to his staid life as Development Manager of a t
