The rotors eased to a stop and silence once more enveloped them. The first man approached Tom and said, ‘Why don’t you go and join your folks while my guys sort this situation out, sir? They’ve done it before and probably wouldn’t appreciate extra and unnecessary witnesses. Make them a cup of tea. That’s what you English do, right?’ He showed white teeth in a pleasant smile.

‘I’m not English,’ Tom said, returning his smile.

*

The clear-up team worked with predictable efficiency, transferring all six corpses to the Black Hawk on a stretcher once they’d been body-bagged. The only trace that anything untoward had occurred in the farmhouse was the damaged coffee table. The medic was extremely efficient, if taciturn. He cleaned and thoroughly dressed the severed digit, which fortunately had been cut at the point of the nailbed so had not caused any tendon damage. He also gave Shona a shot of antibiotics but advised that she would need to seek medical attention in due course.

Tom took a moment to assess his reaction to personally killing four people over the past hour. In essence, he felt the same as the twenty-eight times he’d snuffed out lives before, when employed as a sniper in the Middle East.

Nothing.

He had no demons, no dark thoughts, no guilt, and he knew he wouldn’t dwell on it. They had to die, they deserved to die: they chose to imprison his family with intent to kill them, so Tom felt nothing other than relief that Cameron and Shona were safe. He wasn’t malicious and he didn’t enjoy killing, but neither did he feel bad about it.

Tom turned to his foster parents, feeling a tug of affection towards them. It made him feel a little more human and possibly normal, having such emotions that he rarely felt otherwise.

‘Are you guys going to be okay?’ he asked.

‘I’ll be honest, Tom: my finger hurts like fuck,’ Shona said. Tom was amazed to see that there was a touch of humour in her voice, despite the events of the past few hours. Once again, he was amazed by the inner strength of this tough, Highland woman.

‘I’m sorry that I brought this to your door, guys,’ Tom said.

‘Shut up, boy.’ Cameron spoke forcefully. ‘You brought nothing to our door. Those individuals being loaded on the helicopter brought this to our door. You did what you had to do and risked everything for us. Just promise me one thing.’

‘I’m listening,’ Tom said, feeling emotion rising in his chest.

‘Make sure that every one of the bastards who did this, organised it or allowed it to happen pays an appropriate price. Remember what I always said to you when you were growing up? Whatever you do, always do right!’ Tears coursed down the cheeks of the rough, tough ex-Bootneck, and his eyes glistened with anger.