He felt rather than heard the creak behind him: almost a disturbance in the quality of the air that alerted him to the fact that he was not alone.

‘Mr Novak, how nice to see you,’ spoke the voice in glottal Serb.

Tom turned to find Filip Stevanovic pointing a large-barrelled revolver at his chest, a slight smile on his face. Tom saw that the hand gripping the gun was bright red with Ivan’s blood, and a large stain covered the other sleeve.

Tom said nothing, just fixed Filip with his even stare, feeling the familiar calmness sweep over him.

‘Where is the memory card?’ asked Filip, not moving the revolver from Tom’s chest.

‘Why did you kill Ivan?’

‘He was a traitor. Now where’s the fucking card?’

‘You look nervous, Filip. You’re sweating, your pupils are dilated. You’re breathing heavily as well.’ Tom’s voice was eerily calm.

The Serb shifted on his feet and firmed his grip on the pistol, his eyes widening at the sound of his name.

‘How do you know my name?’

A smile spread across Tom’s face. ‘Why are you so nervous, Filip? Is it because you think I’m dangerous? You can’t just shoot me because you need the card and I don’t have it with me. If you shoot me without the card, then Branko will want to know why. Who knows what I’ve done with it? I could have left it anywhere for people to find.’

‘How do you know my fucking name?’

‘Come on, Filip, you can’t be that nervous. You’ve got a great big 44 Magnum, or whatever that is. You were in the army, for God’s sake. I bet you weren’t this nervous when you broke out of that Swiss jail, were you?’ Tom continued to fix Filip with his dark brown eyes. ‘I’m not nervous, Filip, not at all. You want to know why?’ Tom advanced a step.

‘Shut up and don’t move or I’ll shoot you, fucking pig!’

‘I bet you won’t. You see, I’ve had guns pointed at me loads of times but most of those guns were automatics, not a revolver. The benefit of an automatic is that I can’t see if it’s loaded or not.’

The smile on Tom’s face widened a little before he continued. ‘But with a revolver I can see whether you’re loaded. Now you’re mostly loaded but I don’t think you used a speed loader. I can see that on your next shot the chamber is empty. I reckon you only have five rounds in there. Your first pull of the trigger won’t work, which means you have to pull twice to kill me. How fast do you reckon I can move?’ Tom smiled again, projecting utter confidence.

Uncertainty spread across Filip’s face and his eyes flicked down to the revolver.