Bloom had been doing this job a while: she knew they were being dismissed and chose to ignore it. It was nothing more than a power play. She had experienced the same thing many times in her work with senior police officers. Leaders like Grey liked to be in control. It had nothing to do with organizational sensitivities and everything to do with personal ones. It was not insignificant, for instance, that his second in command remained standing. Here was a junior officer who knew exactly what her boss demanded, and Bloom suspected that was compliance.

‘None of the hospitals in or around Plymouth have any record of admitting Captain Peterson,’ she said, ‘so it’s unlikely that he discharged himself. A more plausible hypothesis is that he came to in the ambulance and somehow wandered off in a disorientated state. But if that were the case you’d expect the paramedics to file a report.’

‘And they haven’t?’ said Grey, betraying his lack of research.

‘We’ve not been able to locate them,’ Jameson replied. Bloom knew he had made some initial enquiries to the ambulance service after they had spoken to Karene this morning. They had no record of a Harry Peterson but were looking into unidentified casualties matching his description.

‘There are protocols for these things,’ Captain Morrisey said. Her voice was deeper than Bloom had expected. ‘There are processes to follow. We can’t ignore the fact that a man has just blown himself up on a military base. The priority at present is finding out his identity and preventing further breaches.’

Bloom kept her eyes on Grey. ‘Are you not worried that he’s missing? Do you not have a duty of care, as his employer, to help us find him?’

Grey rolled his shoulders backwards, expanding his chest. ‘I am assisting and will continue to assist the designated investigators. This is not a civilian matter.’

‘But as your colleague rightly says,’ said Jameson, ‘the investigators are focusing on the terrorist attack, and not on one missing officer.’

‘We’re good at finding people, Rear Admiral,’ said Bloom, hoping the use of his title might play to his need for respect and recognition. ‘It’s what we do. And we don’t want to interfere with the investigation. We always cooperate fully with the police. In fact, we have a meeting with them in the diary.’ This wasn’t entirely true but she’d asked the question and was confident they’d grant her a meeting. ‘But if we want to get to the bottom of this then we need to know more about Captain Peterson.’

‘What’s the nature of his job?’ asked Jameson.

Grey said nothing. He’d been happy to put Jameson in his place earlier, but had avoided eye contact with him since. Yet more evidence that this was a man who did not like to be challenged.

‘You’re not at liberty to say?’ said Bloom.