‘It’s raining. You want me to get soaked?’

‘I wouldn’t be doing this, if I were you.’

‘Doing what?’

‘Annoying the hell out of me. Under the circumstances, not advisable. Unless you want to be chewing on your own teeth sometime in the near future.’

Segal huffed, then rocked forward the empty passenger seat and clambered out of the car. ‘I’m going back to the guest house to be with Margot.’

‘Suit yourself.’

Ben went on smoking. A couple of minutes later, he heard the passenger door again and opened his eyes. Roth was back from his walk, hair slicked with rain. He asked, ‘What’s up with Segal? I just saw him slinking off with a face like a grizzly shitting a pine cone.’

‘Never mind him,’ Ben said irritably. ‘Did you have a pleasant little stroll?’

‘Inspiring,’ Roth said as he bundled into the car. ‘You might even say educational. Time to haul ass, buddy.’

‘Where to? Back to your island?’

‘Nope, not just yet. I was thinking of a scenic little Normandy seaside spot called Plage de Vaucottes. It’s about forty klicks up the coast from here.’

‘Don’t tell me. It was right after Paris on your visiting France bucket list.’

‘Wrong again. I never heard of the place in my life before. But it so happens that what you Brits might call a bit of a flap happened there within the last few minutes, and is still ongoing. One that the cops don’t even know about yet. But they will pretty soon, so I’d suggest we get moving.’

Ben stared at him. ‘What kind of a flap?’

Roth answered, ‘One that involves a buncha badass dudes doing badass shit, and more gunfire than the locals have known since June 1944.’

Chapter 54

Nazim’s sharp ears had picked up the faraway thump of the helicopter not long after their departure from the dead cargo ship. Guessing it was a coastguard patrol aircraft coming out to investigate the loss of radio contact, he’d pressed on fast into the night to avoid being spotted. His course had taken him in a wide parabolic arc that made landfall some way up the coast. The north-easterly sloping shape of the coastline meant that he’d been closer to land than the ship had been to the port. By 8.02 a.m., just twenty minutes since making their escape, they were already approaching the shore.