‘Oh, it certainly is that. And here’s the scary part. If they were just trying to enrich themselves like any other organised crime empire, that would be one thing. But Islamic law prohibits its warriors from waging jihad for personal gain. Despite the documented historical fact that their Prophet, may Peace be upon Him, used to happily share out among his victorious troops the trophies of war from all the Jews and Christians and other tribes he’d slaughtered and beheaded, back in the early days. Thanks to a bit of theological jiggery pokery the modern militant fundamentalists decided it was perfectly permissible to sell plundered artifacts to enrich their organisations, so long as it was done purely for the jihadist cause. Just as it’s allowed for them to make money from all kinds of other commodities forbidden to Muslims, like drugs, or alcohol, or improperly slaughtered meat, and so on, on condition that the loot is used exclusively for the purpose of funding holy war against the kuffar harbi. That is to say, the pigs, apes and other infidels who are the stated enemies of Islamic fundamentalist doctrine. People like you and me. Then Allah approves of it. Am I getting Islamophobic yet?’

‘Maybe a little bit.’

‘Tough shit. I just report facts. I don’t deal in fiction, I don’t do phobias, and nobody’s gonna label me with some pseudo-psychiatric term that was invented to stifle free speech.’

‘I’d imagine that the trade in stolen antiquities is worth a bit more to them than hijacking truckloads of booze and corned beef,’ Ben said.

‘You have no idea. It’s not just millions. It’s hundreds upon hundreds of millions, year on year. Every penny of which gets reinvested straight into their fucked-up tireless ideological crusade. More money means more guns, more bombs, more sophisticated communications and recruiting networks, better infrastructure, enhanced power and influence, and so on. This thing turned out to be a goldmine for them. Most of the goods are brought to the West, via networks of crooked middlemen, smugglers and the like.’

‘And Julien Segal is one of those?’

‘Well, it looks that way, doesn’t it? He’s certainly got all the right contacts, knows how the system works. Just the man to slip the merchandise into Europe under the radar. Taking a hell of a risk, but I suppose the money’s good.’

‘And that would account for the shipment Romy talked about, if the antiquities in Segal’s Tripoli warehouse are contraband looted by ISIL,’ Ben said.

Françoise Schell frowned. ‘Except that still doesn’t explain all that’s in her message. She said they were planning something terrible. That sounds like more than just black marketeering.’

‘Unless the proceeds are intended to pay for explosives for suicide bombers to detonate in any number of major cities across Europe. That’s pretty terrible.’