‘Not without an anti-tank gun,’ I said. ‘Those are armoured riot trucks.’ Silently I cursed Hanna. If he hadn’t done that, then this mob would have been away within minutes and the hostages would have been safe. Philips would never have gone ahead with his crazy parachute stunt now – there was no point.

Frank stared at me with wild eyes. I thought for a moment he was going to shoot me and I tightened for a quick dive. Then he yelled, ‘Everybody out!’

The men assembled again in front of the Lear. Frank had pulled himself together but he was still on the edge. ‘They might think they’ve stitched us up, but nothing’s changed. We still have the Boeing, and that means we still have control. Now comes the time to separate the men from the boys. I’m staying. Who’s with me?’

They looked at each other with sideways glances. Bruno said, ‘What’s the use? We’re boxed in.’

Frank looked at his watch then said, ‘You’re the one who said nobody’s going to put you in jail. And after two hours you’re ready to give up. Jesus, what a crowd.’

Haslam said, ‘Hanna gave us fifteen minutes. The time’s nearly up.’

‘He won’t do a thing while we hold those passengers,’ argued Frank. ‘Especially not at night, and especially if we tell him the score. I say we hold out and see what daybreak brings. Who’s with me on that, at least?’

They were badly confused but they grabbed at that one. At least it was a concrete suggestion, and Frank was probably right about calling Hanna’s bluff. I said, ‘I’ll go down and tell Hanna.’

‘You stay right where you are, buster.’ Frank’s pistol pointed directly at me. ‘Bruno, you and Terry go down and put it straight to that cop. Tell him we have a bomb on board the Boeing and if he tries anything, we blow the goddamn thing sky high, passengers and all. That’ll stop him.’

If it was true, it would indeed stop Hanna in his tracks. It was the perfect stand-off.

Frank said, ‘We might as well use the time sensibly.’ He pointed at Haslam and Philips. ‘Get back to loading the bags onto the plane.’

The gang broke up and he glared at me. ‘You I want to talk to. Come here!’

I walked past Philips and Haslam as they set to work manhandling bags, and went over to where Frank stood between the Lear and the back wall of the hangar. ‘What other tricks have the cops got?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said.

‘But you knew about those armoured trucks.’

‘He didn’t have them when I came up here.’

Frank said, ‘But you knew they were coming.’

‘Hanna may have mentioned them.’ I didn’t like where this was going.

‘And you didn’t tell me,’ said Frank.