The Mitsubishi crawled tentatively into the parking lot as Tovah took cover behind the rubbled side wall of a florist’s shop. The rear cab door flung open and two guys jumped out, keeping low as they headed towards the fuel station. The rest drove deeper into the lot.

Tovah watched through her rifle sight, seeing the confused body language of a team with nobody giving orders. At the same time, the Toyota had circled to the rear of the mall. It stopped by an exit on to the main road and the men in the back started jumping out.

Lauren’s voice came over the intercom, the engine of her speeding dirt bike in the background. ‘Bruce and I have the mall in sight, over.’

‘Circle around and deal with the Toyota,’ Tovah said. ‘Be aware there are two hostiles near the gas station.’

‘Roger that,’ Lauren said.

As the Mitsubishi slowed down, Tovah turned the polarising filter on her gun-sight to cut out the reflection coming off the windshield. The instant she had a clear view, she aligned the crosshairs with the driver’s nose and took a shot.

The truck jerked forwards as his head exploded. Doors flung open and panicked guys jumped out. IS clearly sent its best troops to forward areas, because these were guys in their fifties, armed with careworn Kalashnikovs, plus a kid of about sixteen.

The teenager was first to die. A shot in the gut and another through his head as he crumpled. Tovah was aware of shots coming from the guys getting out of the Toyota, but her position was well covered and only a freak ricochet could cause a problem. The old guys getting out the other side were trickier, because the pick-up gave them cover.

Tovah dug into her trouser pocket, pulled the pin on an anti-personnel grenade, then bobbed up and made a ground-skimming throw that ended with the grenade bouncing off the underside of the truck. The grenade was filled with hundreds of metal flechettes and screams erupted as the blast lifted the back end of the Mitsubishi, and knocked the men on its opposite side unconscious.

Tovah bobbed up, thinking she might be able to take the vehicle and use the big rear-mounted gun, but the hot metal had also punctured the fuel tank. The rear end was ablaze and she didn’t fancy being this close when strands of 20mm ammunition clips heated up.

As Tovah scrambled out the back of the crumbled florist shop, Lauren and Bruce jumped off their bikes and took cover, squatting by the mall’s perimeter fence, fifty metres from the Toyota and five middle-aged guys taking sporadic shots at Tovah’s position.

Lauren was a good shot, but she felt sick as she crashed down in the dirt beside Bruce. ‘You ever killed anyone before?’

Bruce shook his head nervously. ‘There’s a lot of them and a few of us. Gotta make it count.’