Axel tried to nod his head, but the pain was too much. ‘We had to do something. I think they were trying to steal a truck, to get away from the shore. That’s why they were snooping around. We got in the pickups and chased them down to the beach. We hadn’t realised there were so many of them. When we turned up they started shooting at us. Léon, he got hit first. Then Jean-Luc, he shot the black guy. Then Jean-Étienne got hit, too.’ Axel screwed his eyes shut and wiped the tears with his good hand, making blood smears on his face.

Léon and Jean-Étienne accounted for two of the bodies on the beach, and the dead jihadist for the third. Ben listened as Axel went on:

‘We didn’t have a lot of ammo. Just what was in our shotguns and rifles. They kept firing and firing at us. Then I felt myself get hit too. I went down. Jean-Luc grabbed me and we ran and hid behind some rocks. We couldn’t move, they had us pinned. There was so much shooting going on, it was like a war. I don’t remember everything. I was so scared. I was feeling faint and bleeding like crazy. Thought I was gonna die. Last thing I remember is the bastards getting into our pickups and taking off.’

From Axel’s incoherent account Ben was gleaning that three of the brothers and one cousin were still alive and out there somewhere. It sounded like Jean-Luc was the leader of the gang. Maybe the eldest brother. Ben asked, ‘Did Jean-Luc and the others go after the shooters?’

Again, Axel tried to nod and groaned aloud at the pain in his neck and shoulder. ‘I think so. I must have been unconscious. Maybe they thought I was dead. When I woke up they were gone, and so was the C1.’ He added, ‘They’re gonna kill the bastards if they catch them.’

Ben glanced back and saw Roth winding his way down the rocks towards them. Then he looked again at Axel’s gunshot wound. Still bleeding heavily and showing no signs of stopping. ‘You’re going to have to get to a hospital. There are two ambulances on the beach. They’ll look after you.’

Axel tugged urgently at Ben’s sleeve with his good hand. ‘Please, dude, don’t tell them I’m here. They’ll arrest me. I skipped bail in Orléans, see? I didn’t do anything wrong but they’ll put me in jail. I don’t want to go to jail!’

Which explained why Axel had been crawling away from the police. Axel had been a bad boy. Ben said, ‘Maybe the local morgue would suit you better.’