Carr jumped into the cab of his vehicle and drove it a few hundred metres away from the aircraft. Then he took a jerry can of fuel from the back and splashed it liberally over the interior, threw a phosphorous grenade into the cab, and turned away.

As it exploded and illuminated him, he raised a hand to the distant Berber family and started running back towards the aircraft.

‘Good luck explaining your new wheels, pal,’ he said to himself.

Chapter 116.

116.

CARR SAW THE Hilux fuel tank go up as the A400’s ramp was closing.

The pitch of the engines increased, as the pilot pushed the throttles forward.

A hundred tonnes of airframe, fuel and human cargo strained against the brakes, and suddenly they were released, and the aircraft lurched forward.

Its acceleration was impressive, and its take-off seemingly vertical.

Within a matter of moments they were airborne, and banking savagely, and heading north, foot to the floor.

They lost Zeff Mahsoud to a cardiac arrest just as they crossed the coastline and headed out over the dark sea.

Kev McMullen and a patrol medic whom Carr didn’t know battled hard to save him, and managed to restart his heart once, but he didn’t have the strength to fight on.

Justin Nicholls was waiting there for them at Sigonella, having flown over at the express instruction of the Prime Minister, to meet Carr, and to be a friendly face for her daughter.

As they were waiting for the Airbus to be refuelled for the direct flight back to Brize, Carr took Nicholls to one side.

‘Your man, Mahsoud,’ he said, quietly. ‘What was his story?’

‘Between me and you?’ said Nicholls.

Carr just looked at him.

‘Alright, alright,’ said Nicholls, hastily. ‘His real name was Rasool Mehsud. Born near Wana in South Waziristan around 1970. They came to England in ’74 after his father came off worst in some sort of tribal dispute. Ended up in Bradford. Father drove a taxi, mother eventually became a social worker. Rasool himself did well at school, joined the Green Howards in ’93. He transferred to the Intelligence Corps as a corporal after 9/11, and started talking to us in 2003. Officially, he was kicked out of the Army for theft, but that was to give him the cover to work for us. We thought we could get more out of him that way, and he agreed.’

‘So he was gen, then?’

‘Very much so. Full-time agent ever since.’

‘The court case?’

‘We needed to get him inside Belmarsh to infiltrate an Islamist cell operating out of there. He hated them for what they were doing in the name of his religion, and he did an outstanding job.’

‘And the attack at Marbella?’