‘You can’t be. You know that.’

‘But—’

‘Please trust us.’ Kate had never seen Ian like this before. There was a calm sincerity to his demeanour that was entirely surprising.

But still she rebelled against it. ‘I can’t just sit here.’

‘We’ll get the car to take you back to the office. Julie can go with you.’

‘No, no—’

‘Or we can drive you up to nearer the scene.’

‘I’ll stay here.’ She nodded. ‘Tell me as soon as you hear anything – anything at all.’

Ian squeezed her arm once more and handed his phone to the security guard, who checked his name against the list and allowed him through.

Kate leant against the wall and sank to the floor. She placed her head in her hands.

A few minutes later, she looked up to see the prime minister standing over her. ‘Are you all right, Kate?’

She started to get up. ‘Stay where you are,’ he insisted, but she stood anyway. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘This is a bloody awful business. I just wanted to say we’re doing everything we possibly can.’

‘Thank you.’

‘I know how terrifying it must be.’

‘Yes.’

‘Sir Alan, the Special Forces chaps, everyone is very confident, so I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. You know how good they all are.’

‘Of course.’

There was an awkward silence. ‘Look,’ he said eventually. ‘Why don’t you come in? I know it’s against all protocol, but, as prime minister, I can probably overrule that.’

The PM nodded at the guard, who let them both through the barrier.

Everyone was in the anteroom, grouped around a screen that carried the video feed from Hereford.

The lead soldier was charging the rear of a building. A man alongside him blew out the lock with a Hatton round, and then they were inside a cavernous warehouse, full of pallets stacked with cement and other building materials. Agitated warnings in Albanian bounced off the tin roof and echoed around the building. A man rounded the corner with an Uzi and was instantly silenced with two rounds from a Sig 556 high-velocity rifle.

They were into a corridor. Kate held her breath as the lead soldier – with the camera on his head – passed one open door, then another.

They reached the last room. The soldier moved forward as he and the man next to him ‘sliced the pie’, covering the room in an arc with their weapons as they moved through the doorway.