‘Legitimate search and rescue to protect major artefacts,’ said North quickly, because while you can take the girl out of St Mary’s, you can’t always take St Mary’s out of the girl.

‘Barely,’ said someone. ‘And now someone’s worked it out and is copying them.’

For some reason, all eyes swivelled to Matthew, who stared back, impassive under his still very non-regulation haircut. Unconsciously, Lockland moved closer to him in silent support. Someone made a rude noise.

‘All right, that’s enough of that,’ said Grint. ‘We—’

The briefing room doors crashed open as Anders emerged, a semi-dressed Luke Parrish dangling from one massive paw.

‘Ah, Trainee Parrish. So glad you could join us.’

Very wisely, Parrish said nothing, concentrating on pulling his clothing into some sort of order.

Grint continued. ‘So that’s the situation, people. This is not a couple of amateurs having a go. This is a large, well-funded, well-organised gang with two or three pods and major financial backing. They’ve breached the tomb and removed a ton of stuff. Major Ellis and the other teams will intercept them and retrieve the artefacts.’

He paused. ‘This is what we do. We prevent people looting the past.’ He raised his voice. ‘What do we do?’

His team responded in well-practised unison. ‘We prevent people looting the past. Sir.’

‘Jesus,’ muttered Parrish.

‘Shh,’ whispered Jane.

Grint was continuing. ‘Our task is to apprehend anyone still remaining, guard the tomb until we can replace what’s been taken and assist the other teams as required. The usual things to watch out for: snakes, scorpions, the Egyptian police, armed tomb robbers . . .’

‘And the Curse of Tutankhamun,’ muttered Parrish.

‘Thank you for your contribution, Mr Parrish – we’ll leave you to cover that particular aspect of the job, shall we?’

Several people laughed.

‘Where’s Ellis?’ muttered Parrish from behind Farrell, still trying to tuck in his T-shirt.

‘Already on site,’ whispered Lockland. ‘Gone after them.’

Someone raised a hand. ‘So what can we expect to see?’

At a nod from Grint, North continued the briefing. ‘It’s night. It’s cold. You will disembark at the very centre of the Valley of the Kings. The terrain is rocky and rough underfoot. There’s a great deal of debris from the tomb – broken rocks, chippings, maybe tools and baskets left behind. Be aware the valley is dotted with guard posts, with four or five Egyptian guards to every post. It’s a forbidden area, so they will assume anyone who isn’t them is a tomb robber. And don’t underestimate them. They’re professional warriors and they make us look like a basket of kittens. Visuals of the valley and of the tomb itself have been flashed to your visors.’