"No? You're staying?" Hegge asked. "Don't you want to go home?"

"It doesn't feel right," Anna answered. Seton did not feel good about it either, she assumed. If he had approved, he would have been a little more enthusiastic about it, but maybe he was only worried that he would be held responsible later on if she stayed. "This is my decision. Whether I was influenced by you or not, I shall not reveal."

He was surprised, as were the others, but he wondered how she had come to her decision. He was relieved by it -- reluctant as he was to deliver her into the hands of the unknown. Not that he felt that he had any right to consider himself responsible for her wellbeing.

"We could make a tape now that you're staying," Raine suggested. He and Hegge had been discussing the possibility ever since they had seen the fake film on television.

"He likes cameras," Hegge explained. "Wouldn't it upset their plans if suddenly other people started to send in their tapes with the Queen? People wouldn't know who the real one was!"

"Do we want to be accused of kidnapping? If we start making demands, they will see us as such," Gris commented.

"But you needn't make the message too specific," said Anna. "It can be...well...double-layered and we'd have to phrase it so carefully that you could never be accused of anything."

"Any politicians who want to volunteer? If we make a tape, we will have to leave here for certain. We had better think of that as well," said Seton. "Where do we go?"

"I've got a holiday home," Anna ventured after a while. "Would anyone expect me to be there? And I could always say you were there at my invitation."

"Isn't there anybody there at the moment?"

"No. It's a summer house."

"Would anyone see us?"

"Not if you don't want them to. It's a short distance from the road and nobody comes up the drive, because the mailbox is at the gate."

While Raine was out to buy a camera, Gris and Hegge laboured on Anna's speech and she had time to ask Seton some questions. "How is the organisation you work for structured?"

"Nobody is supposed to know," he answered.

"I know lots of things nobody is supposed to know. Like that my second cousin Charles-Louis is gay and that that is the reason why we are not married."

"If anyone asked me why you were not married to Charles-Louis, I should say it was because he is your second cousin," Seton replied dryly.

"Yes, that too, but they who arrange marriages aren't really impressed by the risks of inbreeding."

"And you? Would you have married Charles-Louis if he weren't gay?"

"I might have, if I was 39 and still single, but you are very skillfully steering away from the subject of the structure of your organisation, as if you are genuinely interested in whom I would marry," said Anna.

"I am," he said seriously.

"No, you are not. Tell me about the organisation. It might be important."

"Well, I think it might also be important to consider whom you would marry in case T has decided to abduct you for the reason of marrying you off to some Arab prince in order to secure a steady oil supply for the next century." He had not consciously been steering her away to another subject, but now that she accused him of it, it might be fun to attempt it.

"What? That's insane. Tell me about the organisation."

"It's not insane. Such things happened a lot in the previous centuries," Seton smiled. He was enjoying himself. Her tenacity amused him. "Women were used as trade material."

Anna punched him lightly out of frustration. "Stop it."

"Hegge, Raine had better make a video of me being tortured rather than one of her," Seton called. "Ouch." He got up when she grabbed a wooden spatula and he dashed into the hall to avoid being hit.

"Either you tell me or I'll hit you," Anna's eyes gleamed. She had not been able to be this silly for years.

"You should seriously consider turning your kingdom into a dictatorship," he challenged. "Dispense with the Prime Minister and take over the power." He had backed onto a bed to escape the spatula, unable to outrun her in such a small flat.

Anna stood over him. "Say that again?" she asked breathlessly leaning onto his knees that he had pulled up to ward her off.

"Say what?" Seton asked, one watchful eye on the spatula because one never knew, and the other eye on the woman hanging over him. If it were not for the spatula, he would be completely enjoying this.

"What you just said, about the Prime Minister and power."

"Why do you want me to repeat it if you know what I said?" He saw she seemed very excited by something he had said. Too bad he did not see what it was.

"I know what you said, but you don't!"

"Oh. Did you like being called a little dictator?" he tried.

Anna hit him with the spatula in disappointment. "I thought you were intelligent!" she exclaimed. "How can you not realise the significance of what you just said?"

"Ouch." Seton grabbed the hand with the spatula and held it away from himself.

"Hello?" Hegge looked in, completely bewildered. "What is going on?"

"We are brainstorming," said Anna.

"I'm the brain and she is storming," Seton turned his head towards Hegge and grinned.

"Uh huh," Hegge nodded as if he understood. "Are you alright, Anna? He's not hurting you, is he?"

"Well, he is," Anna complained. "I had thought he was really intelligent, but he doesn't even understand me."

"I have my shortcomings," he mocked. "I cannot think in your presence."

"Oh well, think in my absence then," she straightened her back and sailed out of the room with a dignified air.

"What have you got for the speech so far?" Anna asked Gris. She tucked her hair back behind her ears and tried to regain her breath. "That looks good," she said when she had read it.

"Thank you. We were working on that last sentence when Hegge went to check out what Seton was doing to you."

"Oh, he wasn't doing anything to me," Anna shook her head earnestly. She looked at the door to see if she would not be overheard by Seton. "I didn't know he could be like that," she said with a hint of wonder. "I had almost forgotten that I could be like that. Was I too silly?" She did not think Seton had found her too silly. His eyes had looked amused all the time, and they were blue-green. But he had again succeeded in avoiding answering her question.

"Anna?" Gris asked.

"One moment," she said hastily. "I am not through with him yet."

Seton eyed her return warily. "Where is that spatula?"

"What's a spatula? Don't distract me. I realised I still don't have my answer."

"Oooh!" said Hegge, who had been having a private talk with Seton about Anna. "What did you ask him? I'd say yes."

"It was not a yes or no question. Must I resort to begging?" Anna asked. "Must I fall down on my knees?"

"Isn't she talkative today?" Seton remarked to Hegge. "I've never heard her other than silent."

"Isn't he funny today?" Anna sarcastically asked Hegge. "I've never heard him other than serious."

"It's called Internal Operations. There's also an External Operations division. T is the ultimate head who heads the whole Secret Operations department," Seton rattled quickly.

"And he reports to the Prime Minister, am I correct?" Anna asked.

Raine had bought a camera and he and Hegge had made a short film of Anna. They had taken great care to select a background that was unidentifiable. It was not clear whether Anna delivered the message on her own behalf as well, but that was exactly the intention.

"We announce that Her Majesty Queen Anna will not be resuming her duties until our Prime Minister has resigned his. A person who allowed the past events to happen, does not deserve to stay in place," Anna read out.

Raine took the tape with him to get it delivered to the TV station.

"We'll leave first," said Seton to Anna as soon as it was dark. "The others have some things to sort out. We'll take your clothes. Any man discovered with a woman's clothing is suspect at the moment and my bag is big enough to hold yours as well."

Anna let it all happen and they left the house. The alley still frightened her, even now that she had seen how innocent it looked in daylight. She almost had to run to keep up with Seton, but he paused at the end of the alley and took her hand. "No one would expect you to walk hand in hand with a man."

"Oh thanks. I didn't know it was that bad with me," Anna said.

"Hello! Would I do it if it was that bad with you?" he asked tersely.

"I don't know. You struck me as pretty professional so far."

He did not reply, but led her towards the station where he bought two train tickets for one station beyond their destination, from a machine, with cash, so nobody would know. Because nobody would expect Anna to take the train, Seton had decided that she should, and since he trusted himself best, he accompanied her.

Anna was not wearing any gloves and in the bitter December cold on the platform she unsuccessfully tried to warm her hands by keeping them in the pockets of her coat. Her feet were getting cold too, despite her new shoes which were much more suited to this weather than her old ones, and the wind was biting at her ears.

"Are you cold?" Seton asked. They could go inside to wait, but there were less people here outside and it was darker than in the brightly lit waiting room.

"Yes."

He leant against a wall and pulled her into a hug. "One, you'll be less cold. Two, there are two policemen on platform one who will be here in a minute."

Anna froze.

"Relax. They're only looking for suspicious people and we are not at all suspicious. And come closer. My arms are not that long."

The two railway policemen had been given orders to patrol near the railway station, but they had not seen anything so far and they doubted that they still would. On this cold night it was not likely that anything could happen. Most of the time they just sat in the waiting room.

The train on platform one had just departed and nobody had been left behind. All the passengers coming off the train had quickly gone on to their waiting transport and none of them had looked suspicious.

On platform two there would be a slow train departing in ten minutes. Some of the passengers were already standing on the platform, while others were still in the waiting room and the hall, but they had seen those. The two policemen silently made their way from one end of platform two to the other, where a tunnel under the tracks would take them to platforms four and five.

Most people had been shopping for Christmas and were now going home. All looked harmless, except perhaps for two youths who looked as if they might be up to some littering or graffiti, but then the policemen were not interested in that tonight. Nearer the tunnel the crowd thinned out and there was just a mother and daughter, an elderly lady and a man hugging a woman and whispering nice things in her ear. It was all extremely innocent.

While they were at the station, the tape had been delivered and was now being broadcast. The editorial staff had first watched it, naturally, and they had quickly summoned their usual experts to the studio, to comment on it. A show was not good if it did not have experts.

"This is a tape we received a short while ago. As you can see, it also features Her Majesty, but I think we'd all agree that this is not the same person as the one in the other video. Will we now be flooded by fake videos of the Queen?" asked the presenter of the kidnapping expert.

"There is a chance of that, although it might be significant that neither group has claimed membership to any organisation so far. However, I think we may safely assume that the second one was made in reaction to the first. I hope that this doesn't pave the way for others, each with their own fake Queen."

"Actually," the royalty expert spoke up. "This woman looks more like the Queen than the first one."

"She does?" the presenter inquired. "Well, the first tape was very blurred. It might have been anyone."

"It was the voice. The accent in the first tape was too much a parody of the accent Her Majesty uses for her Christmas speeches. If you listen carefully you might notice that it was slightly over the top. I must disagree with our kidnapping expert. I think that the second tape is the real one."

"But that would imply that the demands made by the first kidnappers are fakes and that the second kidnappers don't have any demands. As you know, their message is a direct reaction to the kidnapping. They are referring to the past events, by which they clearly mean the kidnapping. If the second group had been genuine, why would they have found it necessary to refer to the kidnapping as if they were appalled about it? No, I still maintain that the second tape is a good example of improvisation. They are creating confusion and trying to benefit from it."

"Unless," the presenter argued, "They are appalled that the whole country has been believing in the wrong video?"

"In such a case they would have emphasised that their Queen was the real one, which they didn't do."

"I still think the second one is more genuine than the first," the royalty expert said stubbornly. He was not taken seriously, since he was regarded as a hobbyist. The second tape was brandished as a fake.

However, those whom the video was aimed at, certainly did not regard it as a fake. The Prime Minister was on the phone immediately. "Have you seen the news, Mr. Thalen? How do you explain it?" he bellowed down the line.

"I haven't seen the news. What is the matter?"

"Your men are supposed to be awaiting your orders and not videotaping the Queen with demands of their own!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Exactly what I said! Somebody has sent the television station a tape with the Queen, much like your own tape, but then with a different Queen and a different message!"

"A different Queen?" Thalen echoed.

"The real one! I have meetings with the woman every week, so I should recognise her. Where, Mr. Thalen, are your men?"

"They are supposed to be in that house."

"And they are not supposed to know anything, but evidently when they start making videos, we may assume that they are onto something. I call an extra meeting," the Prime Minister decided.

"What do we do? You all realise what this second tape means. This is upsetting our plans in a very big way. It will be very difficult to resolve this according to plan."

"Does this mean that the Queen is no longer in that house?" a high-ranking civil servant asked.

Thalen shrugged. "I sent a team over because they do not respond."

"In other words," the Prime Minister summarised. "There is a force working against us, in possession of the Queen. I suggest that they are found. And quick."

"What am I to do with them?" Thalen asked.

"You judge as you see fit." The Prime Minister obviously washed his hands of any nastiness. "Keep in mind that this is a case of insubordination and kidnapping."

"See?" Seton whispered in Anna's ear. "I told you we were not suspicious. They walked past us without giving us a second glance."

"Will it be warmer on the train?" she asked. "I'm not looking forward to walking all the way from the station to the house."

"We can't take a taxi." Suddenly he stiffened as he saw someone across the tracks in the station hall, but then he relaxed when he realised that it was no one he knew.

Anna had noticed something. "What is wrong?"

"I thought I saw someone, but I was wrong."

"Are you sure? You're not saying that to keep me from worrying?"

"No. There's the train," he said in relief when they heard the train rolling into the station.

Seton took her hand again and Anna felt it was ice-cold. The train was packed, and they could only stand somewhere in a small hall between compartments. The other people there were engrossed in their books, but it was best to be safe, so he sat down on the floor and pulled her down beside him. They would not be able to see much of her now.

"How long will it take before we get there?" she asked softly. Sitting on the floor for a few hours was sure to make her sore.

"An hour or so," he whispered and tried to blow his hands warm.

They sat in silence for an hour. Seton felt it was too dangerous to talk in case she should betray anything. Anna, who sometimes felt like asking something, realised that she did not even know his first name, so she kept quiet. Instead, she rested her head on her knees and tried to sleep.

He nudged her when it was time to get off the train. Luckily there were more people getting off at that station, so they did not stand out. They joined the stream of passengers leaving the platform and he guided her towards the rear exit of the station and led her across a footbridge over the river. "We are going in the right direction, aren't we?"

"Yes. It's across the river."

It was not a long walk and Anna soon pointed him towards a path that would lead directly to the fence surrounding her house. "There's a shortcut, but we'd better go in through the gate, because that path is too dark."

"Who are your neighbours? Do they know you have a house here?"

"Oh, one or two do, but they won't tell because they don't want it to be known that they have a house here too or they'll have screaming teenage fans on their doorstep, and they certainly won't be here now. Most of these are summer houses."

Arriving at the gate, Anna opened it with a key and closed it behind them. She did not lock it, so the others could come through the gate as well. They walked up the curving drive and Seton looked back. It was hard to tell, but it seemed as if it was nearly impossible to see the house from the road. The vegetation was also thick enough to hide if any lights were on in the house. The drive was suddenly lit by dim footlights. "What's that?" he asked when Anna started too.

"I forgot that -- there's a little sensor at the gate."

"Switch off that sensor if you can," he commented. "It attracts too much attention."

"I'm not sure I can." She led him up the drive to the front door. "Here's the key. You open it."

"Why?" he asked curiously when she handed him the key.

"I don't want to go in first. Please? What if something jumps on me? All this walking through the dark is making me scared."

"Well, alright then." He unlocked the door and stepped in. Anna was right behind him, because he heard her cry out when he stepped on her toes. "I'm sorry. Alright, you go left, I go right to check that the house is empty."

"No! I'm not going anywhere without you," she said, sounding frightened. He switched on a few lights with the aid of his flashlight and Anna followed him as he made his tour through the house. "Check under the beds too," she urged.

To humour her, he looked under the beds and in the closets. A thorough search revealed that there was nobody in the house and judging by the layer of dust, nobody had been there for several weeks. It relieved Anna, until Seton announced that he was going to take a hot bath to get warm again. "W-W-What?" she stammered. "You can't do that. Where would I go?"

"Well, somewhere outside of the bathroom," he suggested.

"Can you not just turn on the heating?" she tried.

"I'm thoroughly chilled. Turning on the heating is not going to help."

"At least wait until the others are here," she begged.

"The house is empty. All the shutters are down. The door is locked. Surely I can leave you alone for half an hour?" he asked in exasperation.

Anna let herself be persuaded that she would be alright and she threw herself on her bed. There were so many strange sounds that it would drive anyone mad, and in the distance she heard a car. It seemed to be coming closer and she imagined that she heard the doors close and footsteps come up the stairs. They were coming for her now and Seton was in the bath. He could not help her. Anna hid her face in the blankets. If she did not see them, maybe they would not see her. She did not even realise that she had screamed.

Seton knew that nobody had passed the bathroom when he heard Anna scream, because he had the door open while he waited for the bath to fill, and he was rather surprised. He did not know exactly where she was, but he found her soon enough, lying face-down on the bed and trembling. He shook her shoulders gently and she flinched at the touch. "Anna? It's me. Why did you scream?"

Anna looked a little relieved when she turned around and saw it was him. "I heard…sounds. Did anyone come in?"

"Nobody came in. I didn't see anybody," he said reassuringly.

"Don't leave me alone," she pleaded when he stood up straight.

She seemed genuinely frightened and not just craving attention, so he pulled her off the bed. "I'm going to take a bath," he reminded her. That would leave the choice up to her. He did not really care if she was going to be in the bathroom or not, but she might think differently. Anyway, there was a plastic curtain around the bath if she was particularly sensitive.

"Oh," Anna mouthed. "So you are going to leave me alone?"

"Well, you may put a chair in the bathroom if it makes you happy."

"While you are in the bath?"

"Yes. I'm sorry. It's either that, or staying alone."

"Alright," she said meekly. The strange noises had been terrifying enough to accept such a strange solution. All that mattered now was that she was not alone. Seton put a chair for her in the bathroom and he locked the door. Anna breathed more easily. It felt safer now that the door was locked, but she was still a little worried because he had not checked the house. He had said nobody had come in, but how could he be sure if he did not go downstairs to check?

He had quickly got into the bath when it was full, and seen she had kept her eyes fixed on the floor absentmindedly. He wondered if she even knew he had undressed. "Anna?"

She looked up with a start. "Oh. You're ready."

"Yes, you missed it," he said to lift her spirits.

"Missed what?"

"Never mind. Are you feeling better now?"

"Yes, thank you. I'm sorry."

"That's alright. Would you mind if I used some of your bottles here?" Seton asked, rubbing some shampoo into his hair. "I already used some."

"No, of course not."

He looked at her and suspected that she trusted him so blindly that she would do anything he proposed, no matter if it was as stupid as this solution of his to have her sit in the bathroom. He rinsed his hair first before he asked her. "How far do you trust me?"

"Why do you want to know?" said Anna suspiciously. She was never good at answering personal questions, and delaying her answer was both to give herself more time to think and because she did not like to be so open about her feelings.

"A little or a lot?"

"Why?"

"Because you do exactly what I say."

"Oh."

"You don't want to say it, do you? You trust my abilities but you don't trust me enough to tell me anything personal."

"And for you, I suppose, it's the other way around?" Anna asked cattily. "You even undress in front of me as if I would look, but you don't think I have any abilities."

"Don't become so spiky, hedgehog. Your need for symmetry very ironically makes you see things a bit crookedly."

If he thought he could anger her or elicit some emotional reaction by calling her names, he was wrong, Anna thought. "How crookedly?" she asked, while at the same time she was reflecting on symmetry and spikiness.

"There's a spider on the wall," he pointed.

Anna looked at the wall behind her and saw nothing, even though she looked very carefully, but when she looked back at him he was sitting on the edge of the bath with a towel around his waist. Now she understood what all the splashing had been about.

"Thank you for looking the other way," Seton mocked in a self-satisfied tone.

"Couldn't you just have asked me?"

"I could have, yes. Are you still cold?"

"Not really."

"Do you want to take a bath?"

Anna hesitated. If that meant she would have Seton watching her, then perhaps she would rather wait until the other men were here and she would not have to be afraid to be alone somewhere in the house.

"I won't stay with you," he said with an amused look as if he read her mind. "If that's what you are afraid of." When she did not answer, he stood up and gathered up his clothes. "You know what, I'll leave you in here. Lock the door if you wish."

Anna locked the door behind him and stepped in front of the mirror. She looked at the reflection of her face and thought of what he had asked. How far did she trust him? She had a lot of respect for him. In this game he was by far her superior, as he had proved. And of course she did not tell him anything personal -- but there was no one she confided in, ever. Although she had first thought differently, he did not confide in her either. She did not think that showing off his body in a towel was any sign of trust. It was probably more a habit, having a figure like that must be making it easier. She still did not know his first name and yet she trusted him to take the right decisions. Implicitly. He would not betray her or abandon her just like that. He would always try to do the best thing. The only thing she would need to worry about was that she would not become too dependent on him.

She looked at her face. Yes, she was satisfied with it, despite that haggard look and the frowns it wore right now. As she ran her fingers through her hair, she felt it was in need of washing, but she had the chance to take care of that now.

After a long and refreshing bath, Anna wondered if Seton was on guard outside the door. He was not, but she heard him talk downstairs. The others must have arrived, then. She went to her bedroom to change into her pyjamas and dressing gown and went downstairs hesitantly.

The three other men had all arrived and they greeted her in a very friendly way, as if they liked her. They were all unpacking boxes and she stopped to see what was in them. It was mostly groceries and other useful items to make their stay more agreeable. "We brought some food," said Hegge. "We thought you might be hungry."

"Actually, I'd forgotten to feel hungry." There had been too many knots in her stomach to feel anything other than fear. Now that she was slowly relaxing, she indeed began to feel a little hunger. Seton was no longer wearing his towel, but he was in his shirt and trousers again. Anna moved closer to him and signaled with her eyes that she had something to say.

He had a quick understanding. "Help me throw these boxes in the hall."

She followed him into the hall with an empty box. "I trust you with my life," she blurted out as quickly and softly as possible, and turned red.

"But not with your mind," he looked at her searchingly.

"I only trust myself with that, just like you," she said defiantly. Perhaps it took him even longer than her to trust anyone with his mind. After all, she had been the first to smile.

"Well noticed."

"I don't even know your --" she broke off. Perhaps it was best not to know.

"Capricorn," Seton said mysteriously and laughed. He walked back into the living room.

Anna followed in confusion, wondering if his name was Capricorn or if he was talking about his sign. Oh, I am so stupid at times, she thought, with disgust at her own confusion. As if anyone would name their child Capricorn. It has to be his sign. But why did he say it? Did he know what I was going to ask and didn't he want me to know his first name? Or was he just guessing wildly?

"Did you see the news?" Raine asked when everything was unpacked. "We heard on the radio that our tape caused some confusion. Apparently the general consensus is that it's a fake."

"We already knew that it was a fake since we faked it," said Seton.

"What happened?" Hegge asked. "You seem so…cheerful."

"The fact that we don't have to worry for a while does wonders," he replied. "All we have to do now is sit and observe what happens out there. And of course Anna is glad to have you here safely."

Anna wondered if he would tell the others anything about her silly fears, but he did not. She suddenly realised that he had begun to call her by her name at some point. "When did you start calling me Anna?"

Seton knew very well when that had been. That had been after she had been so bloody snobbish about the throne. He had called her Anna to see if she would react, but she had not.

"He's always been calling you Anna," Hegge revealed.

"Not to my face. He was calling me nothing."

"Oh," said Hegge. "He never talked about nothing, but he did talk about Anna--"

"-- thing. Yes, anything," Seton interrupted before Hegge could say more.

Hegge snorted. "So now it turns out that all those conversations that I thought were about Anna thing, were actually about nothing?"

Anna looked from one to the other. She was sure she had heard them say Anna thing. "Did you say Anna thing?"

"No, he said anything," Seton said.

"There is nothing to discuss about me," said Anna. "But that must be the nothing you discussed, don't you think so? Considering that you apparently didn't discuss anything, but nothing, you must have reached that conclusion too."

"Don't go too far or we'll make a real kidnapping tape of you," said Hegge in admiration.

"Where is the sensor control?" Seton asked of Anna.

"I have no idea."

"I'll find it." He went into the hall to look for it. Perhaps it was in the meter cupboard. If he could not find it, he would have to go out to put the sensor out of order.

"Anna, can you cook?" Hegge asked when Raine and Gris flung themselves in front of the TV.

"I can fry an egg."

"Excellent. Then you can assist me."

Anna looked anxious. "I didn't mean to say that when I fry an egg it looks like an omelette when it's done."

"That doesn't matter. You can cut vegetables, can't you? You don't have to do much, but those two over there always either eat the food or throw it before it's prepared, so I can't ask them to help me."

"Alright," she said hesitantly. She had to ask him what he and Seton had discussed about her, anyway. Painstakingly she followed Hegge's instructions on how to cut up a tomato. If she had to do all of them, she doubted that they would be ready before midnight. "You said that you talked about me with him."

Hegge chuckled for some mysterious reason. "You're not even on last-name terms with him?"

"Seton." Anna concentrated on her tomato. "What did you talk about?"

"It was nothing negative. Mainly professional talk."

"What does professional talk imply?"

"An evaluation of the risks you would pose -- that sort of thing," Hegge said vaguely. "You know, if you'd be likely to become hysterical, demanding, spoilt, nymphomaniac, claustrophobic, go into withdrawal…"

Anna opened her eyes wide when she heard the list. It sounded as if they had turned her inside out and pass judgement on her in the process. It was rather unnerving. "And?" she said unsteadily. "What did you conclude?"

"That you didn't seem to be addicted to anything, not given to hysterical fits, not out to seduce us, not demanding, not stupid…"

"Is that good?"

"I should think so! Can you imagine trying to protect a sexy junkie who's trying to sow discord among us? It happened to another Unit once and only one of them survived it."

Anna was impressed. "Only one? What happened?"

"I don't know exactly. You should ask Seton. He didn't tell me everything."

"He's not going to tell me. He's a bit economical with information."

"Once bitten, twice shy," said Hegge. "But if there is something you'd like to know about him, ask me. I know him very well."

She was not going to ask him anything about Seton. "Why don't you call him by his first name then?"

"Because we don't make any exceptions. Some of us have the same first name and that's why we use last names. We don't do that to you because I was told your last name is triple-barreled, but if you had had a normal last name, we would have called you by it. But now…"

Anna smiled. "It's not triple-barreled. It only has one hyphen, although it does have five words."

"How awful," Hegge said with sympathy. "My parents were simple people and they named me after my grandfather. I only have two initials: T.H. You have at least six."

"A few more than that. You didn't think my parents would let me go through life with three surnames and only one given name, did you?" she asked in amusement. "My initials are A. J. M. M. d. T. v. R.-L."

"I think we'll stick to Anna," Hegge shuddered. "And your future husband? Does he have to remember all those names?"

"Of course."

Hegge looked around the room. "Speaking of which, where is -- ahh. Another news bulletin." He and Anna temporarily abandoned their vegetables to watch it.

"An elite team raided a house today which was believed to be the terrorists' hideout, but it was found empty. A spokesman neither confirmed nor denied that Her Majesty had been inside the house. He did say that evidence had been discovered that pointed to the kidnappers' current whereabouts, but he would not reveal what kind of evidence," the presenter said gravely. There were no shots of the house in question.

"Should we be worried?" Raine asked.

"No, they're probably talking about the flat," said Gris. "That will be on tomorrow's news, probably."

The Prime Minister came on during a press conference. He emphasised once more that he and his cabinet would not bow to the demands. "We do not negotiate with terrorists. I have a firm belief in the abilities of our special task forces. Her Majesty the Queen will be returned to us safely and the terrorists will be brought to justice."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Hegge impatiently. "Waffle on."

The presenter took over again. "The opposition have expressed their dissatisfaction with the cabinet's inflexible attitude, which they believe may endanger the Queen's life. They urged the Prime Minister to negotiate with the kidnappers and the opposition party is contemplating a fundraising to collect the ransom money to free the Queen if the cabinet should stick to their decision not to give in to any demands."

"You should put them in power, Anna," Hegge nodded.

"But you had better turn up before they start paying ransom to non-existent kidnappers," Raine frowned. They listened to what else was being said, but it was not very interesting. "And the PM is not impressed by our video?"

"Would he say so in public?" Gris wondered. "Can he even contact us? Our phones are switched off." Seton had told all of them to switch their mobile phones off the night before.

"Can we call him?" Hegge asked. "We don't have his number."

"Yes, we do. I do," said Anna, who realised that her personal organiser was in her shoulder bag and that the address and phone number section also contained the Prime Minister's phone numbers.

"You do?"

"Yes, of course. I'm the Queen. I have his home and his secretary's and his private office number."

"We can't use our phones here," said Gris. "They can be traced."

"But you could drive a bit and call from somewhere else," Anna suggested. "I don't know how the tracing works, but they can't find the exact place, I should think. And they already know who I am with, so it doesn't matter if they find out whose phone was used, does it? Or use mine."

"I think it's a good idea," said Gris.

"We could also have him call us at a certain time and at that time the one with the phone could be stationed somewhere. By the time they get a vague idea of where the phone was, it will be back here," Anna thought out loud. "Calling him is maybe quicker than delivering a note."

"Yes," Raine agreed. "I had the tape delivered by a courier service, but they'll be on the look-out for them now."

"We have decided on a course of action," Raine told Seton when he returned.

"Oh?"

Raine told him what they had been discussing. "What do you think?"

"I think it's a good plan. All we have to think of is what we'll say."

"I had the Queen's bank accounts checked and the Swiss were not very forthcoming with information at first, but when I persisted they were able to tell me that a large sum was withdrawn yesterday evening from a cash machine near the house that was raided today," said the police commissioner. "So we can assume that she was really there." He passed round a copy of the bank statement that had been faxed to him.

Thalen knew for a fact that she had really been there, but he did not say so.

"As you can see she withdrew a substantial amount. The cash machines are all under camera surveillance and I have sent a few officers round to the bank in question to confiscate the videotape. We know the time and it should not take too long to see who exactly withdrew the money. I have also ordered the Swiss bank to notify me straightaway if more money is withdrawn."

"Excellent, Commissioner," the Prime Minister praised. When the commissioner had left, he turned to Thalen. "Have you managed to get hold of the pictures of your men?"

Thalen had tried, but the four files had mysteriously disappeared. He suspected the man in charge of the files, but he could not ask outright without revealing anything. "They have disappeared."

"Disappeared? How is that possible?"

It had been one of the first things Seton had done after they had fled the first house. He did not want their pictures to be spread all over the country, so he had phoned Peter the document man, who had promised to waylay the files for a while. Seton knew that the only pictures of them were in the personnel files. For fake documents they usually had new pictures made. Peter was more likely to be loyal to members of the Units than to Thalen, who had been appointed from the outside.

"I don't know, sir," Thalen confessed. "I think Unit 6 were behind it."

"They seem to be behind a lot of things. I don't like it. What kinds of men are we dealing with, Thalen?"

Chapter 10

"What are we going to say?" Seton asked.

"Tell him we're onto him," Hegge suggested. "Even though we're not."

"What will he do when we say that?" Anna asked.

"I don't know. He's already after us anyway."

"Or pretending to be after us," Anna said slowly. "There was no concrete evidence on the news. They just said that they had raided the house, but they didn't even show any images of it."

"Of what?" Seton asked. He had not seen the news, because he had been busy smashing the sensor by the gate out of order.

"Apparently they raided Location 61," Raine explained. "But we were no longer there."

"But Anna, do you think they are only pretending?" Hegge asked incredulously.

"We should consider all possibilities before ruling them out," Seton said, glancing at Anna. She was proving to be very useful. "This makes it all the more vital that we speak to him. We'll ask him what he is doing, without revealing anything about ourselves."

"Then you should definitely be the one to talk to him," Anna could not help saying.

Seton gave her an odd look. He was not certain if he should take that as an insult, because he was rather amused by it. "Or you."

"No."

"Just to confuse him."

"No, I never know what to say," Anna warded off.

"Yes. I'll tell you what to say."

"He'll be right next to you holding your hand," Hegge reassured her.

Seton gave him a disturbed look. That was not exactly what he had in mind. Trust Hegge to jump to premature conclusions.

"That doesn't matter." Anna shook her head stubbornly. "I just don't want to do it."

If she did not want to do it, he was not going to push her. "Alright. Do we have a volunteer?" Nobody reacted. "Does that mean I have to do it myself?" he asked. Several nods answered him and he sighed. "Very well, I'll do it with your phone," he said to Anna. He got his notebook ready to write down a few attempts at messages, but his pen did not write very well.

Anna got up and got her shoulder bag from the hall. She looked into it and handed him a pen. "Here."

"Thank you."

She rummaged a little more in her bag and extracted something that looked like calculator. "This is my diary and address book."

"Oooh, a toy," Hegge exclaimed. "Can I see it?"

"Sure," she pushed it towards him.

Seton raised his eyebrows at her. He wondered at her giving her diary up so easily. The contents must not be very personal, then.

"What's your code?" Hegge asked when he discovered that he could not do anything without a code, except use it as a calculator.

"0303."

Hegge typed in the code and looked at the functions. He first played around with it for a bit and then gave it to Seton. "All the important numbers are there."

"So I see," said Seton when he came across Hegge's phone number. He was less amused when he came across his own, but he did not remove it. He quickly copied the Prime Minister's numbers and gave the toy back to Hegge, who regretfully had to put it aside because he was still making dinner. Seton watched Hegge instruct Anna on how to cook for a while, a small smile curving his lips. She was frowning in concentration and she was really trying to do it well.

To his surprise, dinner tasted well. It was very simple -- he could have made it, not being a great cook himself. Over dinner, it was agreed that he would go out in the morning to call the PM, because it was more conspicuous to travel during the night. Seton did not mind, since he was looking forward to a long, uninterrupted night of sleep after two very short nights. It had required the utmost of his concentration to keep his attention fixed on the topics they had been discussing and after dinner he was standing a little absentmindedly with a tea-towel while Raine was washing and Gris drying the dishes. Somehow he kept missing the dishes. He saw he was not the only tired one when Anna unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn. She looked as if she would much rather be in bed.

Anna felt herself yawning all the time after dinner, but she dared not go upstairs alone. "Excuse me," she said softly to Seton when he was near enough. He did not seem to be doing anything constructive with his tea-towel, so she could not be keeping him from his work. "I want to go to bed, but --" she bit her lip. "It's dark upstairs. Are you sure there is nobody there?"

"Do you want me to go with you?" he asked.

"Please."

"I will."

"You're too kind," she said gratefully. "Now?"

He flung his tea-towel onto the rack. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

"Me too," Anna said quickly.

"I hadn't got to that part yet," he said. "I have to make sure that Anna will not be attacked by non-existent monsters, so I'm going with her."

Anna looked embarrassed.

"John, tact is something you have never heard of," said Hegge with a snort.

"What did Hegge mean?" Anna asked when she was brushing her teeth. She was already in her pyjamas so there was not much she had to do before she could get into bed. Seton had dutifully checked all the rooms and they were all empty.

Seton said something unintelligible and spat out his toothpaste. "How can you talk with your mouth full of toothpaste?"

"Is your name John?"

"How do you know that?"

"Hegge just called you that."

"Then I suppose it's so."

"We're getting there," Anna remarked. "Bit by bit."

"Getting where?"

"Getting to know you."

Anna walked to her room and he followed her. She climbed into bed and since there was no chair, Seton sat down on the other side of the double bed. "Why would you want to get to know me?" he asked, watching with interest as she pulled all the covers loose.

"It's not fair that you know everything about me and all I know about you is that you are two years older than I."

"I don't know anything about you. I don't read tabloids."

"You knew my age," Anna pointed out. She had finally arranged the covers to her liking.

"By osmosis, I suppose," he replied. "I don't know anything about you personally. For example, I have no idea why you have a double bed when you obviously find the covers much too large for comfort."

"I do that so I can turn over while you sit on the bed," she yawned and closed her eyes.

"Audience over?"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."

"That's alright. Do you mind if I read this magazine?" He picked one up from the floor. "I didn't know Queens read such drivel."

"It's not really drivel."

Seton snorted as he leafed through it. He could of course take the magazine with him, but he did not think it would take him very long to read it, so he stayed in place.

He opened his eyes and wondered how he came to be in bed. The last thing he remembered was that he had been reading an article titled How to Seduce a Man in 6 Steps. The light was on and he saw he was still in Anna's room. He supposed he had just dozed off for a second, but on the clock he saw to his great alarm that it was already three o'clock and that Anna was not in bed. He closed his eyes again to make sure he was not dreaming and was just debating whether he should investigate or stay on the bed, when he heard her slide back into the bed with a rustle of the covers. Obviously she knew he was there -- the light was on -- but she did not do anything about it. He had half expected her to shriek or wake him up. She did no such thing. On the contrary. With more rustling of the covers, she tucked him in. Seton wondered if he should say something, but decided against it.

When he woke next, there was a note on her pillow, informing that she had not been kidnapped but that she had only gone downstairs to have breakfast. He grinned to himself. It was probably a genuine note and he was amused by it, but she probably had not realised that anyone could write such notes.

"Good morning," he said when he came downstairs.

"It's about time," said Hegge humorously. "Does Anna have a comfortable bed, boss?"

"Yes, very comfortable."

"Does he snore, Anna?"

"No, he doesn't. He was very well-behaved."

One of the advantages of being late was that everything had already been prepared, so Seton could eat very quickly. He let the others tease him about his long night for a while and only smiled now and then. "Can I have your phone?" he asked Anna. "I should go now. You don't want to come along, do you? It might be useful to have you around."

"You had her all night," Hegge complained. "Let us have her now."

But Seton had got his way, and armed with Anna's phone, they set off in a car that Anna had conveniently had in the garage. He still marvelled at all those things. She looked very normal, but every time she shyly remarked, "don't worry, I have that," he realised again that she was some otherworldly creature. He sat next to her as she drove and he was rummaging through her glove compartment for CD's.

"I have a suggestion," Anna broke the silence.

"And that is?"

"That you switch into off-duty mode."

"Off-duty mode?"

"You know what I mean," she gave him a sideways glance. "You know very well what I mean. You let it show only a few times, but I know it's there."

"What is?" Seton dropped a CD and fumbled for it on the floor.

"Your off-duty mode. Stop acting like a bloody machine."

He sighed.

Another sideways glance showed her that he was frowning. She prompted him a little more. "You can't keep on saying that you're on the job. You probably lost it already. This is your spare time."

"Do you realise the dangers?"

"Yes, I do," she gave him a frank look. "But I don't care. This is my spare time too."

"Are you the same woman who is afraid in the dark?" he asked sceptically. "And who needs me to escort her to her bedroom? Or were you putting on an act?"

"I was not putting on an act. I was genuinely afraid. I am still genuinely afraid -- of something. But it doesn't seem so bad when you are with me," Anna blushed. "So if I apparently need your presence, you can't really blame me for trying to make it more agreeable, can you?"

He laughed. "You're quite something."

Seton let Anna stop at a roadside restaurant and petrol station. First he let her draw more money, because they had almost run out of it. "I told you, you were useful," he winked.

"See? That is much better," Anna praised.

"Don't make me do that too often," he smiled. "My eyes might get tired. I'm going to call now." They got back in the car. At this hour, the PM would be at his office and he called him there.

"Your Majesty?" The Prime Minister obviously had caller identification on his phone and he obviously knew Anna's number.

Seton made a note to ask Anna if she ever called him on her cell phone. "Wrong. But this is her phone."

"Who am I speaking with?"

"Not important. I have the Queen's phone and I'm also speaking on her behalf. Remember that."

"I want to speak to her."

"Not possible. You received our message." He knew he should only state things and not ask questions. Questions would show the other side that they did not know everything. It was better to keep them guessing.

"It is unacceptable! I do not give in to common terrorists."

"You can reach me at this number tonight at nine -- no sooner, no later -- to tell me whether all the people responsible for this pretty scheme will resign." Seton hung up.

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