But Benjamin was having none of it. “It’s all rubbish!” he said. “Invisibility spells. Herbs that make you tell the truth if you cut them at noon. If the gardener told you he was king of the fairies, would you believe him?” “No,” I said. “But it’s possible that the herb affects the brain somehow, like alcohol does, or coffee.” “So you want to just waltz into Shiskin’s house and get him to smell a pot of leaves. Do you know how a Soviet agent is trained?” “Do you?” I asked. “I know we’re no match for it.” I wasn’t sure what had made me so brave—possibly being in another country that was so different from my own, possibly trying to match what I thought was Benjamin’s courage. But I felt determined to move forward in the only way we could. “You said you wanted to live a life of adventure,” I said. “Let’s just test the herb and see if it works.” Benjamin rolled his eyes but had no argument, so we went to my flat, which was eerily quiet with my parents at work.
