‘Bloody hell!’ Bruce shouted, as Kyle’s voice came back over the com.

‘Looks like more vehicles closing in,’ Kyle said. ‘You need to get back here. Repeat, back here now.’

‘We can give you a T-shirt,’ Tovah said in Arabic, grabbing the girl’s hand as Bruce started running towards the supermarket. James was out in the car park, clearing some debris from the fighting as Lauren drove her microlight out of the supermarket, with Sachs’ chunky frame squeezed in the back.

‘Good to go,’ James shouted, giving his sister a double thumbs-up.

As Lauren put her lightweight plane to full throttle and rattled off across the parking lot in one direction, Bruce, Tovah and the Syrian girl sprinted towards the shed. Before Lauren was even off the ground, Ryan rolled out of the supermarket, with Yuen as passenger. His heart thumped as he ran through checks he’d done fifty times before at the hostel. Fuel, navigation, flaps.

‘All set,’ Ryan said, taking a glance back at his nervous passenger and forward at Lauren leaving the ground, before going full throttle for take-off.

The next two planes were some way off being ready for take-off.

‘Who’s this?’ James asked, surprised to see Tovah with a raggedy Arab accomplice.

‘She needs a T-shirt,’ Bruce said. ‘Tovah’s probably closest to her size.’

‘No,’ Tovah said firmly. ‘We’ll fly her out. She’s not safe here without her brother looking after her.’

‘There’s no empty seat,’ Kyle said.

‘Three planes,’ Tovah said, pointing across the hall. ‘We brought a backup. I had to take some parts off to replace a faulty navigation unit on Ryan’s plane, but I can fly eighty clicks in daylight without one.’

The building shook as something hit the front wall.

‘That’s a twenty-millimetre shell,’ Tovah said, glancing at the screens. ‘I’d say they’re wary of coming close after we took the first wave out, but it looks like they’re gonna be shooting from a distance. James, you fly with Kyle. Bruce, you take the girl.’

‘Maybe she’d be more comfortable with you,’ Bruce suggested. ‘Being female and speaking good Arabic.’

‘I’ll be last out in case any of you have a problem on take-off,’ Tovah said. ‘And the faster she’s out, the safer she is.’

‘It’s too hairy out there for my tastes,’ James said, casting a wary glance back at the monitors, as two more 20mms shook the building.

As James and Kyle pushed their little plane towards the exit and clambered inside, Tovah spent a few seconds explaining to the girl that Bruce was going to fly her to a safe place and that they would find a good family to look after her.

‘What’s her name?’ Bruce asked, as he realised that nobody had thought to ask.

‘Zahra,’ the girl said.

Bruce smiled. ‘I’ll try and be a good pilot,’ he said warmly.