In the past I’d liked these last moments; cherished them, even, for their clarity, their sense of purpose: before the green light the world drew into focus. At first I had imagined it a trick of the rifle scope. But I found the same simplicity of vision glinted off a knife blade, too, or gleamed on the tight wire of a garrotte.

Now I just went over the exfil details step by step, over and over. I turned the job around and upside down and shook it until it shed its secrets. Any idiot can get in anywhere on earth. The trick is getting out again.

He might have trapped himself – but he’d given me an exit. It was two and a half klicks to the jetty at Altaheeran on the west side of the lough mouth. I’d run the skiff down on the flood tide and then pull hard across to the opposite shore. No need for an outboard. If she sank, I’d swim to the quay. I’d left a Kia rental and a change of clothes there and was wearing a base layer of neoprene skins. It was too risky to head towards Belfast and the barracks at Raven Hill; and, as old man Ellard said, ‘A rabbit never bolts straight for the burrow.’ Frank would let me know where and when we’d debrief. Knowing Frank it would be in a pub in Mayo. And if not in Mayo, then in a pub for sure.

I rolled my shoulders and turned my face to the west. The squall blew through and a little of the old clarity seeped back.

Zero seven thirty.

H-hour.

The lamp lit up the window. I cocked the hammer and spat out the stone.

Good to go.

I made my way along the gully and emerged at an oblique angle to the front of the cottage. If he bolted out the back I’d hear him first and then see him run. Then he’d have to choose between me and the sea. It was just light enough to step foot safely, briskly. The soles of my boots trampled the ragged winter grass, cutting a trail to his door. I covered the distance gun up, ready.

Nothing, no one moved. So far, so good.

I put the silenced muzzle of the .45 to the keyhole. The slugs could take the lock out of a door, and the heart out of a man. I held my breath and squeezed the old latch with my thumb and pushed gently. Unlocked. No wires. Exhaling, I pushed harder. Nothing went bang. The door opened and inched into the gloom.