But at least now if they bumped into the likes of el Jaziri the odds were back in their favour.

He took out a Garmin GPS, fired it up, waited for it to locate him, and punched in the coordinates for the first route RV.

The device confirmed the route, which was roughly due east.

He switched it off – it was purely for backup – and set a bearing on his compass.

Then he knelt down, produced his map, and illuminated it with a small torch, shielding the light as he did so. He’d broken the route down into ten legs, each ending at an RV sited at a distinctive topographical feature – a river bed junction, say, or a saddle between two peaks.

If anything went wrong en route from one RV to the next, or they somehow got split up, this allowed them to move back to the previous RV, and regroup.

RV1 to RV5 was eight kilometres, and took them to the border crossing; from RV6 it was six kilometres to the final RV, 10, which was just short of the place where they would pick up their vehicles.

The route was testing in places – the ground was rough, and they’d have to make a few gentle climbs – but they were travelling light and they were all fit, even Geordie. The man from Newcastle liked to whine about his leg, but he was as strong as an ox and as stubborn as a mule, and Carr had no concerns about him.

Five hours of steady pace patrolling – no dramas.

He looked at his watch – a nice, robust Casio G-Shock.

A shade before 22:00hrs.

A five-hour tab meant they’d be at the RV well before dawn, but they needed to get cracking.

‘Gather round, guys,’ said Carr. ‘Come on – jildy, jildy.’

He pointed to the map and showed them their route again.

‘Everyone happy?’ he said.

Three nods.

‘Happy, John,’ said Fred West.

Carr turned to Firas, who had gathered up their discarded civvies.

‘Firas,’ he said, in Arabic. ‘Thanks for your help. Your brother and his son, too. We owe you one, okay?’

The Libyan shook his hand.

‘Whatever you are here for, may God protect you, my friend,’ he said. ‘Maybe one day I will see you back in Tunis.’

With that, the three Tunisians were gone.

The four men watched them drive off, and waited on for another twenty minutes, enough time for them to be on the road and away.

Then Carr said, ‘Okay, guys, listen in. As discussed, from this point on I’m in charge. Just like back in the Regiment, yes? Geordie’s 2 I/C. And we treat this like any op, okay?’

Three nods.

‘Order of march will be Kev at the front, then me, then Fred. Geordie will bring up the rear.’

More nods.

‘We’ll just test-fire, and then we’re off.’