Care of Her Majesty

Jordan is sent to a British embassy in Eastern Europe with a cover story and a real mission underneath it. Officially he is there to look into ten thousand pounds that has gone missing, supposedly royalties from a published novel. The truth, once he is trusted with it, is that the money was meant to bribe enemy agents. And the real truth, the one he digs out for himself, is that the money was never the point at all: top-secret files have gone missing instead. The money was the noise; the files were the signal.

The embassy does not want him there, and the feeling is mutual. His methods cause friction from the moment he arrives, and the discovery of a large picture positioned to hide the safe from the security cameras during the break-in tells him someone inside was involved. He has to smile at people he suspects and suspect people who smile at him. The trail ends with Sarah Landring, caught by Jordan after the case has turned itself inside out more than once. Ten thousand pounds was the decoy. The files were the prize. A decoy that expensive is a confession of what the files are worth.

Robert Banks Stewart wrote it, Jonathan Alwyn directed. Derren Nesbitt is Det. Chief Insp. Jordan, Fulton Mackay Det. Supt. Inman and Morris Perry Charles Moxon. Hilary Heath plays Sarah Landring, John Franklyn-Robbins Desmond Whittaker, Geoffrey Lumsden Sir Pearce Challis, with Daniel Moynihan's King, Alec Ross' Reddon, Anthony Dawes' Warmby and John Bryans' Jimmy Ansell completing the embassy staff.

The episode turns neatly from a missing-cash enquiry into a missing-files scandal, and the pleasure is in watching Jordan peel the story down: royalties, bribes, theft, and finally espionage. The embassy never wanted him there. By the end, they know why. It is the rare episode where the cover story is half the plot.