Because whoever came next, they could only come one at a time.

David Carter’s face no longer displayed a friendly smile as he came through the doorway. His eyes flicked to the crumbled giant, prone on the cell floor, as he stepped inside. Then they returned to Mansour.

He took two short steps inside. Enough to make room between himself and the cell door, but still staying seven or eight feet from Mansour, who remained resolutely tight to the back wall.

Mansour found the movement telling. Carter had reached the door ready for carnage, and that was exactly what he had found. Only it was not the carnage he had been expecting. Mansour could see the uncertainty in his eyes. He was almost amused by the distance Carter was now keeping.

Less amused were Carter’s companions, who seemed to have reached the cell with the same enthusiasm, but in whom it was not so easily defused. They forced their way into the cell behind him, struggling with the limited space.

Server One and Server Three.

The dirty man and the coward, Mansour thought to himself.

‘How the fuck’d you do that?’ Carter’s first words confirmed the fear Mansour had suspected, as he indicated the guard. ‘We was only ten seconds behind ya.’

‘You were sent by Romeo?’ Mansour had reached the obvious conclusion.

‘You got some powerful enemies, Nizar.’ He neither confirmed nor denied the name. ‘Let’s just say that.’

Carter looked down again as he spoke. At the state of the man on the floor between them. Then he looked back towards Mansour, and then around the cell.

He was assessing his next move, Mansour realised. How an attack would play out. An attack where Carter would be on his own, with his support literally trapped behind him.

‘You’re nervous?’ Mansour asked. He already knew the answer. ‘You should be.’

‘Why? Because of what you did to him? You think that worries me?’

‘I know that it does. Your eyes tell me.’ Mansour smiled. ‘You reach me first, you end up like him.’

‘You think?’

‘I don’t think. I know.’

‘We’ll see about that, won’t we.’ Carter’s voice was no longer as confident.

‘When? You are talking much. But you are not moving.’

Carter said nothing. His eyes flicked nervously around the room. For a moment Mansour felt a surge of hope.

Would Carter baulk? Would he run?

That hope did not last.

‘Are we doing this or what?’ The question came from behind. Server Three. It was directed at Carter. ‘Get the fuck on with it, would ya?’

‘I’ll do it when I’m ready.’ Carter found some aggression to inject into his voice. It rang hollow.

‘When you’re ready? When you’re fucking ready? This ain’t a bungee jump. For fuck sake, get on with it.’

Carter half turned to face his companions, but as he did so Server Three pushed him hard in the back. It sent Carter stumbling forward towards Mansour. On a path that was blocked by the unmoving guard.