‘We will all walk into the clearing. If you don’t cooperate you all die where you stand,’ Boris said, still fixing Tom with his blank-eyed stare. Tom could detect no doubt or nerves, just utter conviction from the Serb.

He heard a muffled sob from Shona and a muted growl from Cameron as they all shuffled across the track and through the gap in the fence into the cleared forest.

As Tom crossed the boundary, a flash of reflection flickered from the woodpile he’d hidden behind just a few hours ago, a slight but definitely visible blink. Tom felt a glimmer of hope rise in his chest. Only one thing could have caused that, and he thought of the radio transmitter sitting in the kitchen of the farmhouse.

They carried on stumbling over the rough terrain for about twenty metres before Boris said, ‘Stop there.’ He began to circle clockwise around the three of them, the weapon never leaving Tom.

‘Your father wants to watch this. Luka, get your phone and videocall him. All three of you kneel, now. If you don’t, I shoot the bitch in the gut and you watch her die.’

Shona’s sobbing intensified but Cameron just glowered, tears running down his granite cheeks and spilling over the duct tape that still secured his mouth. Tom looked at them both in turn, nodded and gave a slight wink and a smile. ‘Do it, guys. Just do it,’ he said, something in his voice making Cameron’s eyebrows rise just a little.

Tom turned his head to the right to look at Boris, then turned to look left at Luka, who stood with a smartphone in his outstretched hand, clearly recording them. He could hear rustling behind him: about five metres away he estimated, mentally noting the position where Aleks stood.

He heard the distinctive sound of a handgun being cocked behind him and smiled before he said, ‘You know, Boris, old boy, this isn’t the first time I’ve had a gun pointed at me. Not the first time at all. I wasn’t scared then and I’m not scared now. Would you like to know why?’ His voice was measured, low, and even.

He saw the merest flicker of doubt and puzzlement cross Boris’s face as the large-calibre bullet from a sniper rifle smashed into the back of the grey-haired man’s head, causing it to explode in a violent shower of blood, skull, and brain matter.