‘We had nothing on that, but he had the perfect credibility – and the balls, frankly – to follow it up, and help us track them down. Zeff insisted on getting involved – felt a personal connection to Charlotte and the Souster girl. We got a stroke of luck when a chap was lifted in Balochistan by Pakistani intelligence. That tipped us off to the Sirte connection. We got another when our friend Shishani inadvertently mentioned Kadyrov’s first name on the video they shot. Those clues got us so far, but Zeff…’

He stopped, noticing that Carr’s face had darkened.

‘What?’ he said.

‘Fucking Shishani,’ said Carr. ‘I dunno. We might have got him, but I never saw his body. I wanted to kill that cunt and see him die with my own eyes.’

‘We’ll keep looking.’

‘If you find him…’

‘We’ll keep looking.’

Carr nodded. ‘So the footage of the target building, the intel about them bugging out?’

‘All from Zeff. The only thing he couldn’t do was actually get inside the compound and get eyes-on – that would obviously have blown him. But the rest of it – his backstory gave him some freedom of movement down there. He used their cell structure against them, knowing that one side of their op wouldn’t talk to the other, and he used the greed of the Sirte tribes to find their local connection. Wangled himself a stay with a local bigwig, knowing that the bigwig would immediately go off and make enquiries. Took a few days, but the guy came back with the exact location.’

‘What was he doing there on the night we went in?’

‘His job was to be my eyes and ears on the ground, and he was a man who did his job to the nth degree,’ said Nicholls. ‘So I imagine he was being my eyes and ears on the ground.’

‘Lucky for me that he was,’ said Carr.

‘Indeed.’

‘Brave guy,’ said Carr.

‘Great Britain was his country, and he wanted to serve it,’ said Nicholls. ‘Beyond that, he believed that God had a plan for him and he was happy to commit his life into the hands of the Almighty. Not sure it would work for me, but it takes all sorts.’

Carr was silent for a moment. Then he said, ‘Family?’

‘Wife and a toddler daughter.’

‘They’ll be looked after? Properly, I mean?’

‘I would be very surprised if they were not.’

‘When you see her, tell his wife that her husband was a brave man,’ said Carr. ‘No shit, I owe him my life.’

‘I will be sure to.’

Stretch Armstrong walked past, looking like business.

Carr saw him flash his hands twice at Rich Arnold.

Twenty minutes, and we’re on the way home, thought Carr.