EQUITY & INVESTMENT 3

They met in the street and each did not know nor recognise the other, though they were sworn adversaries. One man felt a warm breeze ruffle his thinning hair and took comfort from it, but to the other man, the wind carried a chill he did not welcome.

It was in Haymarket, just south of Piccadilly Circus. One man was walking from the American Express club, the other to a hastily arranged meeting in the offices of Chase de Vere, celebrated brokers to the great and not necessarily good.

The street was strangely quiet for a late London afternoon, as if fate had decreed the scene must be properly set for such an auspicious occasion, but anticlimax had a part to play too, and the men passed each other without ceremony or comment.

The Chief hardly noticed the shadowy figure who slipped past him, though he smiled to himself when he saw the man shiver, his unseasonably tanned skin betraying the fact that he was an occasional visitor to these shores.