Andrew Cook

You auction it in America.

Obviously, you're going to have a very large finder's fee, but you send the money back to us and we'll buy arms and ammunition and bribe people and all the rest of it with this money.

So he was seduced by this amazing offer of literally the modern equivalent of absolute millions by pillaging Russian art.

A couple of Riley's intelligence colleagues or former intelligence colleagues are saying, well, we really need to find out a little bit more about this trust organization.

We can't do it because we're now very short of staff.

The government cuts in the 20s and the government's mood isn't really, as I say, to go sending people into Russia and start prodding hornets' nests and ruffling feathers.

But you're not working for us anymore, Sydney.

Why don't you do this?

So he flies off to Finland.

They wine and dine him and whatever.

They sit around the table talking about him.

And then they know him.

They've read him, as it were.

And in the last resort, they say to him, well, come on, just cross the border for a couple of days.

What harm is it going to do?

People have forgotten all about you now.

And he says, no, no, no, I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to do that.

And they said, hold on a minute.

You're Sidney Riley.