‘Who is he, what does he do?’

‘Like me, he is also a middleman, but his connections are more political than mine.’

‘The Saudi royal family, you mean? He speaks for the sheikhs?’

‘He speaks with the sheikhs, but that is not what I meant by political.’ The Arab lowered his voice. ‘All I am asking is that you speak with him, Simeon. Hear what he has to say.’

Crazy Boy nodded. ‘I’ll think about it,’ he said.

Shepherd was sitting in front of the television half-watching a chat show in which a woman pregnant for the fourth time was about to undergo a lie detector test to see if she had been unfaithful to her current boyfriend. The host of the show, with a reptilian smile and a Savile Row suit, was egging the audience on as they shouted abuse at the woman, an overweight bleached blonde in a pink leisure suit and silver ankle boots. Shepherd could tell from the woman’s body language that she wasn’t lying, she wasn’t being unfaithful and the baby was her boyfriend’s. He wondered why anyone would expose themselves to such hatred and ridicule on a show that was presumably seen by millions. The boyfriend was no catch, either, and had the clothes, posture and haircut of a man who’d spent a few years in prison and who would probably be back behind bars before too long. They seemed a well-suited couple, but Shepherd felt sorry for the woman’s kids.

On-screen the woman pushed herself up out of her chair and began screaming insults at someone in the audience, spittle flying from her mouth as she ranted and raved, her belly wobbling like a bowl of jelly. Two security men moved in to stop her diving into the audience, most of whom were now standing up and baying abuse at her. It was the first time in years that he had watched daytime television and Shepherd realised that he hadn’t missed much.

He picked up his remote and clicked through to Sky News. He was sitting on the sofa with his computer on his lap. He’d plugged in the thumb drive that Button had given him and was reading the briefing notes about the freight-forwarding company in Hammersmith and the personnel who were suspected of helping Crazy Boy choose his targets off the coast of Somalia. He wasn’t looking forward to going undercover in an office where the only danger he faced was the risk of a paper cut. As an undercover cop and later as a SOCA operative he’d taken on some of the biggest villains in the country, and in Northern Ireland he’d gone undercover to get close to terrorists, and while he understood the need to bring down a pirate warlord like Crazy Boy, he didn’t think that Button was making the best use of his talents. Still, on the plus side he’d be able to get home at weekends and there’d be no problems phoning Liam each evening.