About this story
Summoned there, you are told information no longer suffices — an event is required, an attack on the Greenwich Observatory, timed to frighten London into harsher policing. Refuse, and the embassy exposes you and the household behind the counter, where Winnie's brother Stevie draws circles and a comrade arrives with news of a bomb-maker for hire.
How it opens
Your narrow Soho shop opened late because respectable trade seldom entered it.
Stevie can watch the counter, though no customer will trouble him yet.
Her brother sat drawing circles behind displays of coded papers and dubious wares.
Will you be back for dinner?
Embassy business should not keep me long.
Choose
Do not let Stevie go out alone.
Ossipon may call; tell him I am away.
I may bring someone home this evening.