‘Five. But they’re all alive and heading to hospital as we speak. Thankfully in genuine ambulances. It could have gone a lot worse, Daniel. The bombs were huge – just one of them would have killed hundreds. The four together …’ He rubbed his chin. ‘Thousands could have died. As it is, we killed the sniper, we’ve got six dead jihadists and two in custody. We got off lightly.’ He took his cigars out of his pocket and lit one. ‘It could have been so much worse.’

‘And if we’d arrested them when they collected the gun, no one would have been hurt.’

‘Possibly not. Except those massive bombs were primed and ready to go. If they hadn’t gone to the stadium, there would have been a fallback position and they would have detonated elsewhere. Four bombs that big going off in Central London would have been a game-changer.’ He blew smoke towards the block. ‘You did well up there.’

Shepherd shrugged. ‘I was lucky.’

Willoughby-Brown shook his head. ‘Maybe, in that you were the right person in the right place at the right time. Only you could have done what needed to be done. But what you did wasn’t down to luck, it was down to your abilities.’ He took another drag on his cigar. ‘If you hadn’t been a sniper in another life, a lot of people would have died.’

‘I guess.’

‘There’s no guess about it.’ He patted Shepherd on the back. ‘You’re a bloody hero. I’m just sorry I can’t give you a medal.’ He turned and walked away, heading for the waiting van.

Shepherd watched him go. His phone vibrated in his pocket. It was Liam. ‘Hey, Dad, what’s happening?’

Shepherd smiled. ‘Not much. How are things with you?’

From the bestselling author of the Spider Shepherd series, this is the utterly addictive new thriller by Stephen Leather.

London is under siege.

Nine men in suicide vests hold hostages in nine different locations around the city, demanding that the government release jihadist prisoners from Belmarsh Prison.

Their deadline: 6 p.m. Today.

But all is not as it seems. The bombers are cleanskins, terrorists with no obvious link to any group, who do not appear on any anti-terror watch list. What has brought them together on this one day to act in this way?

Mo Kamran is the superintendent in charge of the Special Crime and Operations branch of the Met. With only hours to go, it is down to him to find the truth – before the capital explodes.