There were now five cars on our tail: three dark, two lighter-coloured, all Peugeots of various models. Bullets were now peppering our bodywork every few seconds, and I realized we had to do something fast, before they hit a tyre, or the engine, or us. There were hardly any other cars on the street - it was well after curfew - which meant we couldn’t easily create a diversion or block them. But the lack of lighting might help: if we got far enough ahead in a residential area, we could lose them in the darkness.

As if reading my thoughts, Isabelle took a late left turn, dimmed the lights for two streets and then swerved into a sudden right. Now we had just three cars in pursuit, the other two not having been tight enough on the turnings and skidding past, the Doppler effect of their sirens echoing after them.

I had run out of ammunition, but our pursuers didn’t seem to be holding off on the shooting. It seemed unlikely they would have brought this much firepower with them had they just been out on a routine raid of the club. But I still couldn’t figure it out: if they were chasing me for the Russians on the golf course, how had they known where to look? They clearly hadn’t followed us out here. Did they think we were someone else? Alarm bells were ringing in my head - and most of them involved the person sitting at the wheel next to me.

I threw the rifle onto the rear seat, then grabbed the Tokarev from the glove compartment and leaned back out of the window. We passed, finally, a lighted building - another club? - which gave me a clear view of the driver of the nearest car for one vital second, and I managed to shatter his windscreen. There was a scream and the car swerved wildly - another of our pursuers was lost to the drains. But the remaining two cars suddenly loomed out from the darkness. As a series of shots thudded into the dashboard, bringing up a storm of sparks, Isabelle momentarily lost control, and then there was a horrific scraping sound as both cars came alongside us, squeezing us between them, and I was looking right into the face of one of the policemen as he raised a pistol and fired.