Barry made himself a cuppa and went into the front room. A camp bed stood upright against the wall in the corner of the room and, behind the armchair, were two khaki rucksacks—one small, one large. Barry was trying to take up as little living space as possible. As he settled down to watch a movie from Topper’s extensive horror collection, he was oblivious to the vast number of eyes on him.

Ridley wasn’t part of the Armed Response Unit briefing, but he knew that he’d get the nod when the time was right. He and his team would follow at a distance and, when Barry was disarmed and prone on the ground, they’d move in for the arrest. Intelligence had confirmed that Barry had no army-issue weapons in his possession, but Ridley was taking no chances with someone who had been part of the armed gang from the 1995 train robbery.

Jack raced toward Essex, suffering a bit from the effects of the whisky. Ridley had rallied his team without even asking where Jack was. He’d stopped caring. So, Laura wasn’t exactly going against any orders by guiding Jack to their location via a series of text messages.

The terraced building had a shared stairwell, so the Armed Response Units had to be very careful to cut off all routes to the other properties. If Barry made it into a neighboring flat, the shit would really hit the fan. So, one ARU would block his route upstairs and out the front, while a second unit headed round the back to block the rear. Barry would have nowhere to run.

What the police didn’t know was that the third floor flat was also occupied by soldiers on leave.

Barry’s mobile buzzed: Armed cops out front. Back clear for now.

He grabbed the smaller of the two rucksacks and put it securely on his back. He then pulled two handguns from under the cushion on the chair where he sat, tucking the Webley Mk IV .38 caliber into his waistband at the small of his back; this gun had seen his dad safely through World War II and was now Barry’s lucky charm. Holding the street-bought Glock 9 mm, Barry walked quietly through the kitchen. The tortoiseshell cat looked up at him through sleepy eyes, while her three remaining kittens, now with full bellies, slept soundly.

In the backyard, Barry glanced up at the third floor, where a silhouetted figure signaled that five armed officers were approaching from the west. Barry signaled his thanks and headed east, toward the rural stretch of track running between Colchester and Hythe railway stations.

The ARUs entered Barry’s flat on a simultaneous command. They cleared each room they passed through and met in the middle. Nothing. In the lounge, a furious Ridley found the large rucksack down the side of the armchair, with the words “Pte Cooper” sewn into the inner lining. The clothes inside were used as a scent reference for the second wave deployment: the Dog Unit.