‘It might have been easier to talk by phone. I was a little busy to just drop everything.’

With a grin, Roth replied, ‘Sorry, man. Not an option. No phone, no email, not that I get any cellphone reception out here. It’s hardly even safe to talk face to face any more. Fucking NSA got their surveillance drones everywhere these days. Privacy comes at a premium, and you’re looking at it.’ He spread his arms wide and beamed up at the heavens.

Ben wondered if Roth hadn’t gone a bit crazy in his retirement. Maybe the marijuana and the rum cocktails weren’t helping. Or maybe that was the whole idea and everyone else was playing a fool’s game.

‘Keegan tells me you’re out of the loop. How long have you been living here?’

‘Oh, a while, I guess. Not much to keep me in Bowie County, Texas, any more. Not since the last Mrs Roth took herself out of my life. Bitch. Anyhow, decided after that I was done risking my ass for strangers. I’d put by a bunch of money, enough to last me out, if I don’t go too nuts with it. So here we are, just me and the cat, a case of rum and my old geetar. I like it. It’s kinda peaceful.’

‘I can resonate with that,’ Ben said. ‘Who doesn’t enjoy a little peace, when we get the chance?’

Roth smiled. ‘But you didn’t come here to inquire into the state of my health and happiness, did you? You got your own agenda, and it’s important enough to drop everything and come all the way here from …?’

‘Paris,’ Ben said. ‘France, not Texas.’

‘Paris, France. I always wanted to go there.’

‘You missed the best days. It isn’t what it used to be.’

‘Story of my life, bro. Ain’t that true of the whole world now? Going to hell, all of us. Faster than we think.’

‘Nazim al-Kassar is alive,’ Ben said.

At the mention of that name, Roth’s demeanour instantly changed. One moment he was the amiable and relaxed beach bum that his T-shirt proclaimed him to be; the next he was as focused as a hunting timber wolf and wearing his implacable old Delta face. ‘That’s an interesting piece of information. That the reason you came here, to tell me that?’

‘You don’t seem too surprised,’ Ben said. ‘Considering your government seemed so sure that they’d taken him out three years ago.’

The ocean wind was picking up and becoming blustery. Heavy black clouds had been rolling in from the west while they talked, and now the first fat raindrop hit the decking with a thud, soon followed by another.

‘Looks like we got some weather coming in,’ Roth said. ‘Let’s go talk inside.’