Bowman kept the muzzle pressed against the assassin as he glanced round. Seguma, Lungu and the two Karatandan bodyguards had stopped in their tracks several paces from the Abbey and turned back towards the kiosk, their faces stencilled with confusion.

‘Get him inside the Abbey!’ Bowman barked at the two bodyguards. ‘Now! I’ll meet you at the door.’

Jallow and Deka snapped out of their stupor. The latter grabbed hold of the president by his bicep, hustled him towards the West Door. Lungu hurried after her boss, struggling to keep up in her high heels. Bowman watched them pass through the wrought-iron gate and disappear into the Abbey. Then he looked over at the police officers near the trees.

‘Give us a hand here!’ Bowman yelled.

The officers rushed over. One of them knelt down beside Bowman and the assassin with the bruised balls. A thickset guy with pale skin and a beard the colour of rust. The two female officers took a knee either side of him, forming a tight protective semicircle. The older woman was fortyish, with short blonde hair and dark circles under her eyes. Her colleague was fifteen or twenty years younger, Asian, with a heart-shaped face and narrow pointed chin.

‘What’s going on?’ the guy with the ginger beard said. ‘Is someone hurt?’

Bowman reached with his free hand into his jacket pocket and waved his SIS identity card at them.

‘I’m with the security services. Listen carefully. Do not react to what I’m about to tell you. Plasticuff this fucker, then get him out of here.’

Ginger Beard’s eyebrows knitted together.

‘Why? What—’

‘This guy isn’t a cop. He just tried to assassinate our principal.’

‘Is anyone hurt?’

‘Everyone’s fine,’ said Bowman. ‘I spotted him before he could fire. The principal is inside the Abbey, but I need your help suppressing this bastard.’

‘What do you need us to do?’ the older woman asked.

‘Get him cuffed. Put him on his back, so no one else can see them. Do it quietly. We don’t want to cause a panic. Is there an ambulance nearby?’

‘I can call one,’ the woman with the heart-shaped face said.

‘Do it. Get this guy on it. Don’t make a big fuss. Pretend he’s fainted. Load him onto a stretcher and take him away to the nearest police station. Get him in a cell and put him on suicide watch.’

‘What about our bosses? Someone will need to tell them what’s happened.’

‘We’ll take care of that. The guys I’m working with will notify the security services. They’ll send someone down to the station to receive him. Just make sure he gets taken away without making a scene.’