T7 licked his dry lips nervously. He gave another very faint nod. It gave Max hope.

Max looked around the room. Lukas, Abby and Sami had lowered their weapons. The SAS men – two of them behind T7, two of them behind Max – had not. Their weapons were trained on T7’s head.

‘Seriously, guys,’ Max said in a level voice. ‘Lower them. If you shoot him, we all die. He knows that.’

There was a ten-second pause. Then, very slowly, the SAS men lowered their weapons.

‘I’m going to take a step forward,’ Max said. ‘You good with that?’ He started to step forward.

Something changed.

‘No!’ T7 barked.

Max froze. He saw that T7’s trembling had increased. In a flash of sudden insight he realised that his hope was misplaced. T7 was backed into a corner. He was scared. But when he came down to it, he had no real option. He wouldn’t be talked round. He’d woken up that morning knowing he was going to die, and that’s what he intended to do.

He was going to detonate.

Everyone in the vicinity would die.

Unless Max could come up with something.

Max took a step back and glanced at Lili. Considering the danger she was in, she appeared incredibly calm. He looked back at T7.

‘Nobody’s going to get too close to you,’ he said quietly. ‘That’s a kill switch in your right hand and a semi-automatic in your left. We get it. We understand that all you have to do is lift your right thumb and we all die.’ He hoped Lili was listening. ‘We understand you’re in charge.’

‘I am in charge,’ T7 said. His voice was hoarse, and it shook.

‘Nobody can stop you,’ Max agreed. ‘They’d have to be …’ His eyes flickered to Lili again. ‘They’d have to be lightning fast.’

– What are you doing, Max? What’s going on? Hector was even more abrupt than usual. He even sounded scared.

But there was no time to explain. A flicker of a smile crossed Lili’s lips. She clearly understood what Max was trying to tell her. He had given her all the information she needed. Their survival was up to her now.

Everything happened so quickly. T7’s eyes rolled. He drew back his shoulders as though preparing for something. Lili closed her eyes for the briefest moment, as though she was drawing strength from another place. Then her hands shot up. With her left hand she grabbed the weapon that was pressed into the back of her head and pushed it away. Her other hand grabbed T7’s right fist and closed over it, pressing his thumb down on to the kill switch so he couldn’t release it.