You look around at your new, slightly more than dingy surroundings. When you pictured MI5, this definitely wasn’t it.

You had been brought in under escort, a witness to a classified incident. Unknown to you, your neighbour had been embroiled in a covert espionage operation, leading to a shoot-out at your apartment.

MI5 believes that you’re a potential loose end, which is why you’ve been taken in. Though instead of Regent’s Park, you were dumped in Slough House for your own safety, or at least that’s what they told you.

Shaken up and exhausted, you can feel a pair of eyes on you.

The agent in question, Roddy Ho, has been staring openly ever since you sat down in his office. The agents that brought you in made their excuses quickly, had to go back to the Park, leaving you alone with him.

“So you’re the one babysitting me then?” you ask dryly.

He grins, all teeth and arrogance. “Lucky you.”

He drops his feet off his desk and swings round to fully face you as he sizes you up. “So… your boyfriend must be worried sick about you.”

“Is that your way of asking if I’m single?” you shoot back.

“Ooh,” he says, clearly delighted, “beauty and brains… I am intrigued.”

“It doesn’t take a genius to notice that you’re trying to chat me up.”

Roddy laughs, unapologetic. “What can I say? Traumatic circumstances bring people together.”