They studied satellite images of the palace and the surrounding neighbourhood, blueprints, the main routes to and from the building. Ideal firing positions, likely points of attack. Then they looked at the wider picture: the locations of the nearest embassies, crossing points to neighbouring countries if the shit hit the fan. Everything. They wouldn’t have time to prepare later on. Once they landed in Karatandu, they were going to hit the ground running. Hard and fast. The Regiment way. Every so often Mallet got up and left to speak with their liaison officer at Six. He was getting a near-constant stream of updates on the status of the diplomatic jets and the UKSF teams, the military escort waiting for them in Marafeni.

‘Jet’s half an hour out,’ Mallet said as he walked back over to the team.

Bowman frowned at the satellite pictures on the laptop. ‘This is a tough ask,’ he said.

‘That’s what Tiny’s missus thinks, every time he’s desperate for a shag,’ Mallet joked.

Bowman didn’t laugh. ‘There’s a lot of things that could go wrong.’

‘It’s a routine job. Get in, secure the stronghold, wait for the main force to show up and do the business, then get the fuck out again. Nothing we haven’t done a hundred times before in the Regiment.’

‘It’s not that easy. If it goes right, great. We’re heroes. But if we get caught out, it’s going to go very bad.’

‘Stop worrying, Josh,’ Loader said. ‘We’re not expecting a scrap.’

‘But we should be planning for one. If the rebels come at us in force, we’ll get clobbered.’

‘We’ve got those presidential guards to back us up. We’ll have a small army to repel any attackers. Forty soldiers.’

‘I’ve trained some of these teams before, Tiny.’ He glanced across the lounge at Seguma and kept his voice low. ‘They’re honest troops, and brave, but they’re nothing to write home about. We can’t rely on them in a firefight.’

Loader gave him a look. ‘Are you getting a bit twitchy?’

‘I’m just trying to work out what the plan is if things go wrong.’

Mallet sighed deeply. ‘The rebels won’t hit us hard. Even if they launch the coup earlier than we think, General Kakuba and his men are going to be focused on securing the critical infrastructure first. The family won’t be at the top of their list.’

‘Karatandu is a small country,’ Bowman pointed out. ‘The size of Wales.’

‘Aye. What’s your point?’

‘It won’t take the KUF long to capture the key targets. Sooner or later, they’re going to target the family.’

‘But by then, the main strike force will have landed in-country. The worst that can happen is that we’ll come under attack by a few opportunists who couldn’t hit a barn door at fifty metres.’