They drove around the back of a large, steel-grey warehouse, Luke counting the number of parked-up vehicles they passed on the way. When they stopped, the driver got out without a word, jerked his head towards a door with a red frame and beckoned him to follow. Luke couldn’t help thinking there was something portentous about that door. By the time I come back out, he thought, I will have either succeeded in uncovering their plan or I will be in extreme danger. But now was not the time to hesitate. Squinting against the brightness of a neon striplight on the ceiling, he found himself standing in a rudimentary office. Three people were facing him, a woman and two men, and they seemed to be expecting him. He recognized one immediately. Short hair, glasses, no make-up, wearing a faded, military-style jacket and a tie-dyed scarf. It was ‘Niamh’, the woman who had interrogated him on the Viber call just a few hours earlier, and it was immediately obvious that she was in charge.

‘Thank you for coming, Steve,’ she said, with unexpected courtesy. ‘We all appreciate your time and your commitment to the movement. Have a seat.’ There were no handshakes, no offers of refreshments: it was straight to business. He noted that all three remained standing while the driver took up a position right behind Luke’s shoulders.

‘We just need to make sure you’re as good at counter-surveillance as we’re told you are,’ she began. ‘Can’t afford any mistakes, can we?’ She gave him a bleak smile. ‘Got to make sure we’ve got the right person for the job.’

Luke said nothing.

‘So, tell us, Steve. How many vehicles did you pass outside since we let you through the gates?’

‘Four.’

‘It’s five. But one’s under tarpaulin so maybe you didn’t see it in the dark.’

Luke shrugged.

Niamh cleared her throat. ‘Since Max here’ – she nodded towards the driver – ‘turned off the main road back there, how many CCTV cameras did you pass?’

‘Since the roundabout, you mean?’ Playing for time while he tried to remember.

‘Yes, the roundabout.’

‘Three.’ But was it three? It might have been four. He really wasn’t sure. Damn. He’d better not make a hash of this or his credibility as a covert counter-surveillance ‘expert’ would collapse like a house of cards. She looked at him for what seemed like a long time, then moved straight on to another question.

‘And what were they? What make?’

Luke snorted derisively. He wasn’t going to make this too easy for them. ‘It’s dark outside, for fuck’s sake!’ he replied.

‘So you’re saying you don’t know?’