‘Indeed not,’ said Kadyrov, pulling at his beard. ‘God made the lamb as He made the lion.’

‘It’s a shame that he and his crew must die, also.’

‘It is a shame. But we must roll up the carpet behind us. Any thread we leave will be unpicked by the Americans and the British.’

Shishani nodded.

‘It’s good,’ he said. ‘This new plan. I like it.’

‘Yes. We still run them in on an inflatable – once again, the sea will be our friend. Bin Salah can identify the precise new landing spot and collect us offshore.’

Chapter 46.

46.

A COUPLE OF HOURS later, an encrypted telephone rang on a desk in the Pakistan Section in the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service in London.

A woman picked it up.

‘Ruth Hall,’ she said.

‘Hi, Ruth,’ said the voice on the other end. ‘Luke in Islamabad.’

‘Luke, hi,’ said Hall. ‘What’s occurring?’

‘I’ve got something for you,’ said Luke. ‘Just heard from a source in the ISI. The Pakistani Army were out and about on the Afghan border a few days ago. Usual thing, they were rounding up Balochi separatists and cracking a few heads. Anyway, the ISI were called up to Samungli to do a routine interrogation of one or two of the more recalcitrant types, and while they were there they came across an elderly chap going by the name of Walid Shah. Turns out Mr Shah is actually a Yemeni called Saeed al-Shafra. He was up to no good, and my guy thought we might like to know.’

‘Very good of him,’ said Hall.

‘Isn’t it?’ said Luke. ‘This al-Shafra bloke was involved in some bombings down in Karachi, way back in 2002. He’d got away from there, and gone quiet up near Nushki, and got caught up in this recent trawl quite by chance. The Pak military didn’t know what they had, and had just duffed him up a bit and then released him. As luck would have it, a member of my ISI guy’s team literally bumped into the bastard at the gates and recognised him. My guy’s interest was obviously the 2002 bombings, but when they searched al-Shafra’s home and had a chat with him they found various indications that he was involved in something more current. Exactly what is not entirely clear, unfortunately, but it seems to be some sort of big attack on UK interests.’

Ruth Hall studied her fingernails. ‘Another one?’ she said, stifling a yawn. ‘Can we get more?’

‘Not from Mr al-Shafra, I’m afraid,’ said Luke. ‘The ISI can be rather enthusiastic in their interrogations, as you’ll be aware. Apparently, he died with a truncheon so far up his arse that they could have knocked his teeth out from the inside, if they hadn’t already knocked them in from the outside.’

‘Shame,’ said Hall.

‘Indeed.’

‘Is that it?’