Tom turned to watch as the Yamaha appeared around the bend, a ghillie-suit clad sniper at the controls with a long-barrelled rifle slung over his shoulder. Tom recognised the rifle as an Accuracy International 338. It was a little overkill for the job bearing in mind he had only shot from about two-hundred metres away. Tom recalled that, in 2009 in Helmand, a sniper from the Life Guards had killed a Taliban fighter at a range of over 2,400 metres with that weapon; still, he had no complaints about this sniper’s weapon systems choice.

He pulled up alongside Tom and shut off the engine. ‘Mr Brogan sends his regards, sir. He would like to speak with you.’ He handed a satellite phone over to Tom but remained on the quad; he was a small, wiry, black man in his early forties and had the look of a seasoned veteran. He was dressed in a fully-camouflaged sniper suit while he cradled the rifle reverentially, staring at Tom with a half-smile.

‘I never let a favour go unreturned, my friend,’ Mike said down the phone.

‘Well, all I can say is thank you, Mike. I thought that was the end for all of us.’

‘My man is disappointed that he got so close. He likened it to shooting fish in a barrel. He probably won’t want to talk very much, he’s a slightly shy freelancer,’ Mike said. ‘What do we have to deal with there, man? There’s a clear-up team en route.’

‘Six bodies, unfortunately,’ said Tom. ‘Three in the clearing, plus another two in the bush by the house, and one inside. I didn’t have much choice, sorry.’

‘No problems. The clear-up team will be there soon. Your folks okay?’

‘They will be. Cameron has seen it all before, but Shona has had the tip of her finger removed,’ Tom said.

‘There’s a medic with the clear-up team. Get him to have a look at it, but you will have to come up with a reasonable story to explain how it happened. We really can’t have cops there any time soon until we have cleared up. We have very little time; I had to call in some favours to pull this off and I want to get it all cleared up as soon as we can. Also, we’ll need to get our tactical kit back. I’d rather it didn’t fall into the wrong hands and I guess you don’t want to look after it.’

‘The three corpses in the clearing have the weapons. The comms kit and spare ammo is in the house, and the case is up at the bothy,’ Tom said.

‘That’s cool. My guys can retrieve at the clear-up. Is there much of a mess inside?’

‘None, really: just a broken table and maybe a bit of blood from a busted nose. We just need to get rid of the cars,’ Tom said.