‘We’re working on it, believe me,’ said Nicholls. ‘You know what it’s like, but we have more people and money on this than anything I can remember since the Tube bombings. The one thing we can’t risk is spooking them. So we’re moving with extreme caution.’

‘Understood,’ said Carr.

He dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out several sheets of A4 paper.

‘This is our shopping list,’ he said. ‘Details our infiltration and exfiltration plan, too. Anything you dinnae understand, call me or Mark Topham.’

Nicholls ran his eye down the first page, then the second.

He looked up at Carr.

‘Christ,’ he said. ‘It’s a hostage rescue you’re working on, not World War Three.’

Carr looked at him, placidly.

‘That’s what we want,’ he said. ‘If it’s one round short, one litre of drinking water down, we don’t go.’

Nicholls nodded. ‘Understood,’ he said.

‘Good,’ said Carr.

‘You have your team sorted?’

‘Aye.’

‘Can I ask who they are?’

‘They’re all good hands,’ said Carr. ‘Combat veterans, men who won’t hesitate, don’t worry about that. Names and essential details on the final sheet. For the payments, and the flights.’

‘Excellent.’

‘You’ll also find the lat and long of the place where we want to get dropped in Tunisia, and the place we want the vehicles and weapons to be in Libya. Timings to be confirmed, but we’ll want those in position, and watched, from two hours before we get dropped off.’

‘Understood. Anything else?’

‘Yes. The LAWs, explosives and all the other stuff can wait a day or two, but I want my hands on our personal weapons inside twenty-four hours, and a range where we can test and zero them.’

‘I’m not sure I can manage that in that time frame,’ said Nicholls.

Carr leaned forward. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I got up at four this morning and drove to fucking Wales to brief the team. Then I turned round and come back down here to see you. I’m pretty fucking sure you can sort out four Diemacos, a few pistols and Minimis and a range between now and this time tomorrow. If you can’t, then I don’t think you have the capability to do this, full-stop.’

‘Well…’ said Nicholls.