The pharmacy next to the house was seriously damaged and burning. Car alarms were shrieking, and barely a single vehicle parked within thirty metres of the house had any glass left in its windows. Terrified neighbours were emerging from their homes or peeking out through their curtains at the incredible carnage taking place right there in their sleepy little suburban street. The howl of police sirens was nearby and approaching fast as the backup units who’d been waiting in the wings now raced to the scene.

Ben’s instinct was to leap out of the car and run to lend assistance to the stricken assault team. His hand was on the door handle and he was poised to fling it open when he spotted movement from the rear section of the house that hadn’t been destroyed in the explosion. The solitary figure of a man scrambling from what looked like a small bathroom window, dropping to the ground and making a rapid escape across the garden. The intensity of the blazing fire was casting long, black, dancing shadows across the rear of the house and neighbouring properties. The running figure vanished into the darkness, then reappeared as he scaled a wooden fence into a next-door garden.

Moments later, Ben saw him dash along the side wall of another house and vault the front garden wall into the street and hit the pavement running. He was maybe eighty yards away but Ben caught a clear glimpse of him under the glow of a sodium lamp. Tall and leggy, dressed in a hoodie top with a sports logo, faded blue jeans and white training shoes. He threw a wild look back at the blazing house and the chaos happening outside, and kept running. Sprinting hard around the corner.

Roth had spotted him too. ‘Sonofabitch! He’s getting away!’

Ben said, ‘No chance. He’s ours. Hold on tight.’

The Alpina roared into action as Ben stamped hard on the gas, twisted the wheel and propelled them out of their parking space, slewing around in a doughnut to point in the direction of the escaping fugitive and then accelerating hard to catch up with him. Roth was already out with his pistol. The street behind them was suddenly lit up in a swirl of flashing red and blue and ululating sirens reverberated off the buildings as the police rushed in.

Ben screeched the car around the corner where the runner had gone, and the flashing lights and leaping flames were lost from view. So was their target. Side streets extended in all directions and he could have hot-footed it down any of them. ‘Dammit, where’d he go?’ Roth exclaimed.