‘When did London cable to say I was on my way?’ I asked.

Manning glanced across at me. ‘About half seven. I was just changing when the office called.’

Half seven. That was fast - it usually took them a month to agree to buy a light bulb.

‘I told the driver to take the night off and drove straight out here,’ Manning was saying. ‘Your flight came in, but there was no sign of you. Then I spotted a soldier standing guard outside one of the doors leading to the dungeons. Thought I’d better take a look-see.’

I told him I was glad he had; he waved my gratitude away. ‘That’s my job. Can’t have our people thrown in the stocks the moment they arrive in the country! Especially not Larry Dark’s boy. Not on my watch. You were unlucky - Bernard’s only in town for a couple of hours. Well, I say unlucky. Depends on how you look at it, of course. A few months back a chap from the Telegraph thought it was a good idea to disagree with him. Bernard had the fellow’s head shaved, got him to do press-ups for an hour, and then forced him to write out the words “I am a crappy Englishman and have no say in Nigeria” a thousand times.’

He roared with laughter at this, yanking the car into an opening in the traffic as he did so. ‘“I am a crappy Englishman and have no say in Nigeria!”’ he bellowed out of the window at a startled motorcyclist, who nearly swerved into the drain as a result. ‘Bernard was always a damn fool,’ he continued calmly once we were safely ensconced in a line just as slow-moving as the one we’d left. ‘Even at Sandhurst. That’s where I first met him, of course, many moons ago. I was an instructor there. Know quite a few of the commanders in this war from those days, as it happens.’

‘What’s he doing in Lagos? I thought his division was miles away.’

‘Yes, he’s over at Port Harcourt. I asked him the same question myself, and he said he was picking up troops and supplies. Apparently he can’t trust the other divisions not to steal his stuff unless he comes up and supervises things personally. Typically African way to run a war.’

I remembered the soldiers I’d seen on the tarmac. ‘What’s he up to? Preparing for the final push?’

Manning snorted. ‘There’s been a final push every blasted month of this war. They’re calling this latest one the final final push - but nobody believes it.’