– The north wall, to the left of the stage as you look at it, is wall A. The south wall is wall B. The west wall leading to the kitchen is wall C. State the positions of the targets in reference to the stage and walls A, B and C. And make it accurate, Max. We don’t want to put bullets in the wrong people.

Max swallowed hard. He kept his head low so that nobody could see him moving his mouth. But his eyes picked out the targets one by one.

‘There are four targets at the back of the stage,’ he whispered, ‘and two each along wall A and wall B. There are no targets on wall C.’

– That’s good. I want you to concentrate on the targets along wall A. We can detect the shadows of six figures. They look like adults. From what you’ve told us, that’s four decoys and two actual targets. Cough once if we’ve got that wrong, otherwise keep quiet.

Max kept quiet.

– Counting from the stage end to the back of the hall, I want you to give each figure a number from one to six. Cough when I say the number that corresponds to the two real targets. One. Two.

Max coughed.

– Three. Four. Five.

He coughed again.

– Six. My information is that the real targets are figures two and five, moving from the stage backwards. Cough if that is correct.

He coughed again. The kid sitting nearby with the ginger hair gave him a strange look. ‘Asthma,’ Max told him quietly, and the kid looked away.

There was a moment of silence. Max felt that the panic in the hall had increased. It was clear everyone knew something was about to happen. The hum of voices had grown a little louder. T1 shouted from the back of the stage: ‘Quiet!’ It had no immediate effect. T1 engaged his weapon and stepped to the front of the stage. He put his weapon against the back of Sami’s head. ‘QUIET!’ he roared. Sami closed his eyes. The hall fell silent. The gunman kept his weapon to the back of the Sami’s skull for a full twenty seconds, before returning to his position at the back of the stage.

Max checked his watch. 13:51. Nine minutes to go. ‘We need to do something,’ he breathed. When Hector spoke again over the comms, it was with a renewed sense of urgency.

– We’re going to turn our attention to wall B. Same drill, from the stage backwards. One.

Cough.

– Two. Three. Four.

Cough.

– Five. Six. My information is that the two targets along wall B are in positions one and four. Cough if that’s correct.

Max coughed again.

– If any of the targets move from their current positions, you need to tell me.