“This is very interesting, Pope, but I don’t have time for history. Just tell me where Duffy is and what you want me to do.”

He ignored her and continued. “The locals have been protesting ever since the Americans won the contract. They’ve picketed the offices, targeted the officials and vandalised the drill sites. It came to a head last week. There was a big protest, several thousand locals, and it started to turn ugly. They tried to break into the compound. There were a few Iraqi soldiers there, but mostly it was men from Manage Risk. They opened fire on the crowd with machine guns. Two hundred injured, sixteen dead. It’s been a very big deal down there. The locals tried to get the men prosecuted, but the charges were all thrown out.”

“I read about it. Unreliable evidence.”

“And it was. The judge said it was built on testimony given in exchange for immunity. The reason you should be interested in this is because Bryan Duffy was one of the five defendants. He was Manage Risk’s top man on the ground that day. The evidence suggests he gave the order to fire.”

“He’s still there?”

Pope nodded. “Working between Basra and the oil field. One of the other defendants is having a crisis of conscience. His name is Mackenzie West. He’s a man of faith and he can’t square what happened with there being no punishment. We’ve heard through channels that he’s ready to give evidence against the other four. Manage Risk knows that. They’ve trumped up a bogus medical reason why he needs to be taken out of circulation. We need you to go and get him out.”

“What’s it got to do with us?”

“If the case against Manage Risk is successful, it will make it very hard for the Americans to hold on to the oilfield. There’s already been a backlash, and if this can be made to stick, it’ll get much, much worse. BP has been told by the Iraqis that there’s a good chance that the contract will be torn up and the field put out to tender again. The government is anxious that should happen. All this intel is coming from MI6. Everyone wins: you get Duffy, the Iraqis get justice, BP gets the oilfield, the treasury gets billions in fresh taxes.”

“Very neat. He’s protected?”

“By the best they’ve got.”

“How many?”

“There’s three hundred in Basra. Good men, not chumps.”

“So it wouldn’t be easy?”

“No. Certainly not.”

“And I don’t have a choice?”

“No, of course you do. You could go in yourself and take Duffy out.”

“But I’ll get no cooperation?”

“I won’t be able to help if you do that. My hands are tied. If you help, I’m authorised to get you into the country and arm you. If you don’t, I can’t. And they want you to remember that you still have Connor English and Control that you need to find. And they’re looking for them for you now.”