‘Let me tell you how these things go, Justin,’ said Carr. ‘I’m talking from experience, here. These kidnapping fuckers, they find a rathole and they go dark. But it only takes one little thing to spook them, and then they’re in the fucking wind, and you might never find them again. As things stand, sounds to me like we had a lucky break with the intelligence pointing to Sirte. No guarantee we’ll get another one. So my plan is to be in Tunisia as soon as possible, and ready to go the minute you nail their precise location. And for that to happen, we will need to be confident in our weapons systems.’

He stared hard at the MI6 man.

‘We’re not playing games, here, pal,’ he said. ‘You need to take this seriously, and pull your finger out.’

Nicholls almost blushed. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I am taking it seriously. I just don’t have your experience of this. My skills are in other areas. I’ll make some calls. I’m sure we can arrange your personal weapons and a range for tomorrow.’

‘And I want something else, too.’

‘Go on.’

‘I want a guarantee,’ said Carr. ‘A guarantee that me and my team are not going to get extradited to Libya on murder charges at some future date. Because we will be killing people.’

‘I give you my word.’

Carr held his gaze. ‘With respect, Justin,’ he said, ‘it’s going to take a bit more than a nod and a wink from a spook who’s working off the books, however senior.’

‘What would you need?’

‘Something formal, agreed with my lawyer in advance, to cover us, in perpetuity. Who knows how long your bird’s going to last at No. 10?’

Nicholls looked out of the window, into the late evening sunshine. In the street below, he watched a little girl snatch a teddy bear from her toddler brother, and the mother taking it from her and handing it back to the screaming boy. The incongruity between the normality down there and the conversation he was having up here was enormous.

‘I’ll get it done,’ he said.

‘That’s us finished for now, then,’ said Carr. He stood up. ‘Just keep me in the loop re their location.’

‘Okay.’

‘You need to be a hundred per cent on all of this, Justin.’

‘I will be.’

‘I’ll need to know where they are, who’s guarding them, the works.’

‘As soon as I know, you’ll know.’

‘No fuck-ups.’

‘I guarantee it.’

‘I’ve heard that before from you guys,’ said Carr.

‘You haven’t heard it from me before,’ said Nicholls, staring straight back at him. ‘Guy de Vere will vouch for me, but I also have a personal stake in this. Penny Morgan is a childhood friend of mine, and an ex-girlfriend from my student days. I know Charlie, too. The thought of her…’

He tailed off.