‘Dark forces or not, the lack of trust means that communication isn’t what it should be. The PSNI has a tendency to hang on to the assets it has because it thinks it gives them an edge over Five. Five regards the PSNI as inherently unreliable so intel sharing isn’t high up its list of priorities.’

‘And because of that, two men died. At my hands.’

‘You saved their agent’s life, Spider. And I can tell you, he had a wife and two kids.’

‘Yeah? Well, one of the guys I shot had five kids, Charlie. And his widow’s going to be bringing them up alone.’

‘They knew what they were doing, Spider. Nobody forced them to join an execution squad.’

‘I know that,’ said Shepherd. ‘But all it would have taken was for someone at the PSNI to let Five know that they had a man in a bombing cell and to have worked with us. And how the hell was the operation blown in the first place? How did they get the Special Branch officer’s phone?’

Button smiled wryly. ‘You won’t like this,’ she said. ‘It was in his coat in a pub and it got stolen. By the time he realised it was missing it was too late.’

Shepherd shook his head in disgust. ‘Bloody amateurs,’ he said.

‘The guy you saved, he wants to meet you,’ said Button. ‘He wants to thank you.’

Shepherd grimaced. ‘Not interested,’ he said. ‘I’m due some time off, right? Six months undercover with hardly a break.’

‘Take as long as you want. And you should talk with Caroline Stockmann.’

‘I don’t need a shrink, Charlie. I won’t be losing any sleep over what I did.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I’ve got to go. Can your guys clean up the flat?’

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘I’ll have your things sent on to Hereford.’

‘There’s nothing there I need,’ he said. ‘It was all part of the legend, there’s nothing personal. Burn the lot. What about you? Are you going to London?’

‘There’s a debriefing at Loughside tomorrow. I’ll be in London later this week.’

Shepherd stood up. ‘I’ll see you when I see you,’ he said.

She looked up at him, the concern obvious in her eyes. ‘Are you OK?’

Shepherd shrugged. ‘I’ve been better,’ he said.

Shepherd got back home in Hereford at four o’clock in the morning. The house was in darkness and he made himself a cup of coffee and two slices of toast. He had just bitten into the second slice when Katra appeared at the kitchen door. She was wearing her favourite pink flannel pyjamas and had tied back her dark brown hair into a ponytail. She blinked the sleep from her eyes as she smiled.