‘Sub-Saharan Africa. Places like Nigeria, Gambia, South Sudan. We picked up thousands of them but the Italian government struggled to take them in at first. It took a lot of negotiating but eventually we were allowed to drop them in Sicily.’

‘Sicily?’ Jameson raised his eyebrows. ‘Mafia territory.’

‘And did Harry Peterson do anything in that time that stood out to you?’ said Bloom.

‘Like what?’

‘Did he go out of his way to save someone? Or did you think he did something wrong or misjudged a situation at all?’

Adams pressed his lips into a thin white line. Bloom expected a challenge about what they were really investigating and why. But after a pause, Adams said, ‘I recall one discussion over dinner. It was not long after we’d started and everyone felt a touch overwhelmed by the scale of it, the number of people trying to cross. One of the officers, a Commander like Peterson, said to Harry that they should be blowing up the launch sites along the Libyan coast to stop the blighters from getting into the sea. I remember Peterson’s response to that. He wasn’t happy. He said something like, “Really? That’s who we are? That’s who you think we should be?” I liked that. I liked that he cared not only about those desperate people but about the Royal Navy and what it should stand for.’

‘So he’s not one to step out of line?’ said Jameson.

‘Absolutely not. He became a bit of a poster boy after the operation. The Navy used him for PR which is not surprising; he’s a good-looking chap and a bit of a charmer. I’ll find you the articles.’ Adams searched through the computer and then printed a couple of pages for them. One was the editorial in The Times that Karene had shown them and Bloom pointed out Harry’s quote about no man, woman or child being expendable.

‘Did anything upset him at all during that time?’ said Jameson.

‘He’s not the sort to get upset. He’s the guy you want around when everyone else is flapping. He stays calm and keeps his sense of humour. Everyone will have been upset by what we saw to some degree, because it’s an awful situation and people were dying. But if you’re asking whether Harry was traumatized? I wouldn’t expect so. It was nothing compared to what you see in war.’

‘Never even asked why we were asking. You’ve gotta love the military,’ said Jameson as they waited for Patrick Grey, who apparently wanted to speak to them before they left.

‘Not everyone is as inquisitive as us,’ said Bloom.

‘Nah, it’s not that. A senior officer told him to answer our questions and so he did. Command and control at its best.’

Rear Admiral Grey greeted them in the reception bang on time at the agreed eleven hundred hours.