The door opened. It was Ian Chapman, the football club’s safety officer, a gruff fifty-something Yorkshireman. He was in overall charge of safety and security at the stadium. Fielding was in charge of the police resources, and if things went bad on a match day the safety officer would usually defer to him. But neither man was expecting trouble that evening and both were looking forward to the main bout. Fielding was sure the Russian was going to win and Chapman was behind the Brit so they’d agreed to differ and bet twenty pounds on the result. A stocky man in his early thirties, his hair cropped short and casually dressed in a black North Face fleece and blue jeans, had come in with Chapman.

‘Andrew, this is is Captain Murray. SAS.’

‘Alex, please,’ said Murray.

‘Andrew Fielding, Inspector. I’m running the police side.’

Murray had a strong grip, and as they shook hands his jacket opened just enough for Fielding to spot a gun in an underarm holster. A large number of Russian VIPs were attending the fight and the Russian Embassy was concerned about security – so concerned that they had asked the PM’s office for armed security at the event. The PM’s office had pointed out that armed Diplomatic Protection Group Officers would be in attendance due to the number of diplomats who planned to be there but the Russian Embassy had offered to pay for even more and, after several days of negotiations, it had been agreed that the SAS would provide an undercover team to guard the VIP area.

‘My men are outside. I just wanted to say hello and see what the story is in here,’ said Murray.

Fielding pointed at the bank of monitors. ‘We can pretty much see everywhere from the cameras,’ he said. ‘Ian’s in radio contact with his stewards and I can talk to my officers.’

‘How many do you have?’

‘Fifty inside the stadium, another ten outside,’ said Fielding. ‘I don’t know if Ian’s told you but every match needs a safety certificate signed off by the chairman of the Safety Advisory Group consisting of representatives from the football club, the local council, the police, ambulance and fire brigade. The SAG always grades matches according to risk – Category A is low risk, B is medium, C is high-risk, and C plus is for those games where we’re almost certain that trouble will kick off. This boxing event was initially graded as A, low risk with minimal police, just ten officers on duty, but after representations from the Russian Embassy the risk assessment was raised to Category B. That means we’re authorised to bring in more men but realistically we’re not expecting any problems. Boxing fans are generally a good-natured bunch.’

‘You’re searching everybody who comes in?’ asked Murray.

Fielding nodded. ‘The organisers have placed metal detectors at all the entrances to the stadium, manned by their own security guards, and so far they seem to be doing a good job. They’re acting professionally with good humour and it’s not causing any problems that we can see.’