‘You OK?’ said Sir Angus.

From the look on his face, Porter could tell it was a pleasantry, not a question. He doesn’t give a toss how I am, or what happens to me. ‘Fine, sir,’ he replied, pouring himself a coffee from the jug in front of him.

Sir Angus nodded. ‘You need that coffee,’ he said. ‘There are still no leads on where Katie Dartmouth might have got to, and the way the PM is wobbling, our boys might be packing up their bags in Basra by the weekend. So right now, you’re still our best shot at sorting out this bloody mess.’

‘God help us,’ said Porter.

‘My thoughts exactly,’ said Sir Angus. ‘I reckon you’re a man who never liked school very much, so we’ll try and keep this as short as possible. But we’re going to have to cram as much knowledge as we can into your head in a very short space of time.’

He nodded towards the man with the grey beard. ‘Professor Gilton here is going to fill you in on as much as we know about Hezbollah. Next up, we’ve got one of our top hostage guys coming in for a chat. Then we’ve got the head of Sky News coming down to talk to you about Katie. Over dinner, we’ll be giving you your instructions, then packing you off to bed. You’ll need all the sleep you can get.’ He looked sharply at Porter. ‘That agreed?’

Porter nodded.

Professor Gilton leant forward on the desk. He’d already drunk one coffee and was starting on the next. ‘How much do you know about Hezbollah?’ he asked.

‘Bunch of mad fuckers with towels on their heads,’ said Porter. He grinned, but quickly noticed that nobody else in the room was smiling and straightened up his lips.

‘Yes, well, that’s one interpretation, although the towels are more often around their necks, actually,’ said Gilton.

Porter shot him a quick glance. ‘Hezbollah was formed after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon,’ he said. ‘It is a Shiite Islamic organisation, and came together as various extremist organisations joined forces to fight the Israelis. It was largely backed by the Iranians, who sent them large sums of money, and about two hundred armed fighters which formed the backbone of its military strength. But it’s important to remember that they aren’t just militants. They have plenty of support in the Lebanon as the main resistance to the Israeli occupation of that country, and without that support it is unlikely they would have survived as long as they have. If you go into the Lebanon, you have to remember, you are fighting on their territory. Don’t expect any support from the locals.’

The professor took another sip of his coffee. That’s shown him not to treat me like an idiot, thought Porter.

‘Quite right,’ said the Professor. ‘Hezbollah virtually invented modern Islamic terrorism. In 1983, it created the suicide bomber when it used them to blow up the American military barracks in Beirut, killing 241 soldiers in one go. And within a few minutes it blew up an apartment block housing French peacekeepers. All the basic elements of Islamic terrorism are there. Suicide bombers. Coordinated strikes. Targets chosen with precision for maximum impact. There is nothing al-Qaeda is doing today that Hezbollah didn’t do first, and often more effectively as well.’