This United state

'I find it difficult to argue against what you have said.'

'Why don't we adjourn to the smaller room for coffee and liqueurs?'

'Good idea.'

The 'smaller' room was also large, spacious and luxuriously furnished. They sat facing each other, on two couches, with a coffee table between them. Morgenstern's blue eyes were gleaming with vitality.

'With all these terrible forces soon to be so powerful,' Morgenstern continued, 'we have to adjust, adapt, be revolutionary.'

'I sense we're approaching the reason why you invited me to have dinner,' Tweed said, then sipped his Cointreau.

'You are a very intuitive man. I noticed that rare quality when we met in Washington.'

'Why didn't you ask Howard to meet you?' Tweed enquired.

Tweed was making no attempt to pretend to be running an insurance outfit. Morgenstern would know he was Deputy Director of the SIS, that Howard was Director.

'Howard is a nice man.' Morgenstern paused for the first time, choosing his words carefully. 'But he hasn't a fraction of your global outlook. We regard you as a key figure in the new system.'

'What new system are you referring to, Jefferson?'

'I said earlier we have to be revolutionary.' Morgenstern leaned forward. 'Britain and America have to merge in a new and much stronger relationship. That is why we are talking tonight.'

'Merge?'

'As I said earlier, economically, socially and politically.'

'Before, you go any further I'd like to ask a few questions. I imagine you saw the TV pictures of the outrage in Oxford Street after the bomb detonated?'

'I did. I was appalled. Such savagery.'

'I think some of your people planted that bomb.'

'You think what?' Morgenstern sat back, appeared to be visibly shaken. 'You can't mean that, Tweed. It's crazy. I find it hard to believe I heard what you just said. We don't do things like that. Why would we, for God's sake?'

Tweed had been watching his host closely. He had a lot of experience in detecting when people were lying. He could have sworn Morgenstern believed what he had just said. He pressed on.

'We have evidence that a huge number of the worst American thugs – gangsters – have arrived in this country by devious routes recently.' He opened the executive case which he had brought with him, took the batch of prints from the envelope, spread them on the coffee table. 'These are the men I'm talking about.'

'They must be members of the Medellin drug cartel – or maybe the Mafia,' Morgenstern said as he looked at' the prints. 'I can only assume someone has fed you with disinformation.'

'You've seen any of those men inside the Embassy at Grosvenor Square?'

'Heavens no! I most certainly haven't.'

'May I ask, do you know everyone who works at the Embassy?'

'Absolutely not. Why should I? My role is running foreign policy. I have a suite of offices on the second floor. And I always enter the Embassy by a side door – to avoid the press photographers.'

Second floor? Then Tweed remembered that in America the ground floor is called the first floor. So when he had seen the back of Morgenstern with two bodyguards at the time of his visit to Sharon Mandeville, on the first floor, the Americans would refer to that as the second floor. Which linked up with what Morgenstern was telling him. Again he had no doubt that his host was speaking the truth.

'You know Sharon Mandeville?' Tweed persisted.

'Yes I do. She has an office on the same floor as my suite. I don't know what her role is, but she has close connections with the White House. She's friends with the President's wife. You know something, Tweed? You make a good interrogator.'

'I've no intention of offending you…'

'That's enough.' Morgenstern smiled. 'You are someone who could never offend me. Very occasionally, you might be deceived by someone trying to make bad blood between us, but I make no claim to infallibility.

'Would you like to explain in more detail this merger between our two countries you suggested a few minutes ago?'

'I said merge, not merger.'

'There's a difference?'

'I suppose there isn't. Have you read how when France-was falling to Germany in the Second World War Churchill offered the French dual citizenship? The French would also have British nationality – and vice versa.'

'Yes, I have read about that. The French turned it down.'

'Let us suppose Washington made a similar offer to this country. All Britons would become American citizens – with all the huge advantages that would give you.'

'Is Washington going to make such an offer? Positively?'

'It has been discussed by the National Security Council. And I chaired the meeting.'

'You haven't answered my question. Positively,' Tweed goaded.

'Other aspects of the joining of our two nations have been discussed in great detail. The Joint Chiefs of Staff would welcome the establishment of further air force and naval bases in Britain. It would increase the reach of, say, missiles aimed from here at the Middle East by three thousand five hundred miles. And the East Coast of the States would be safe again – safe from the danger of an attack by Muslim powers from occupied Britain.'

'What else has been discussed behind closed doors in Washington?' Tweed demanded.

'A special Act has been drafted in secret for Congress – this would incorporate Britain into the American system.'

'What are the huge advantages to this country you mentioned a few minutes ago?'

'You have a population of about fifty million-plus. At the moment the largest state in the US is California – a population of roughly thirty million. Britain would be by far the most powerful element when it came to electing a President. You would have more electoral votes than any other state in the Union. From America's point of view it would greatly increase the Anglo-Saxon vote. You would be the power-brokers. Who knows? In the not too distant future an Englishman, now an American citizen, might be elected President.'

'You always were very persuasive.'

'Emotionally,' Morgenstern leaned forward again, 'this merger would appeal to many Americans. They would feel they were coming home again. After all, the Republic originated in England, when the Pilgrim Fathers sailed across the Atlantic.'

Morgenstern refilled his liqueur glass with more Grand Marnier after topping up Tweed's Cointreau. He drank half of what he had poured, then continued, his energy undiminished.

'If you allowed yourselves to be dragged into the doomed federation of Europe you would be nobody, outvoted on every issue, And who would you be sitting with? Old enemies. Long ago you destroyed the Armada sent against you by Philip of Spain. One of your greatest generals, Marlborough, checkmated the power of Louis XIV of France in a series of military victories. You fought and defeated the Kaiser – and Adolf Hitler.'

'The dinner was excellent,' Tweed said suddenly. He suspected the chef was French."'Thank you for a memorable evening.'

'You're not going? You haven't given me your reaction to all I've told you.'

'You propose to turn Britain into the fifty-first state of the United States…'

18

'They've all gone home,' said George when he opened the door at Park Crescent. He was blinking as though he'd just had a nap. 'Only Paula is still here.'

When Tweed opened the door to his office Paula was sitting behind Monica's desk. She checked her watch, looked at him as she made her comment.

'I persuaded Monica to go home, get some sleep. She's worked like a Trojan in building up her profiles. I said I'd wait to take calls. You've been a long time. It must have been a very long dinner with Morgenstern.'

'After I left Jefferson I got a taxi to take me to Downing Street. I had a chat with the PM, who is also working all hours.'

Removing his coat, he sat behind his desk. He poured water from a carafe into a glass that Monica, he felt sure, had left him.