The chief was already moving off, and Jeremy and some of the other subs followed. He led them down another long concrete corridor with dormitories coming off it. The doors were standing open and Jeremy could see rooms like those in a barracks: metal bunks, thin orange duvets and grey metal lockers. To the doors had been Sellotaped sheets of A4 printed with the names of departments: Features, Diary, Showbiz… On one door, though, someone had instead affixed a sign prised from the lower level of the car park under Copper House: a blue square with the white legend ‘SUB BASEMENT’.

Inside the subs’ dorm, a thin, slightly translucent sheet had been strung across one end of the room to screen off a space for the girls. Max had saved the bunk above his own for Jeremy and a folded set of garish orange linen was sitting on it ready for the bed to be made. Max had hung his jacket and shirts fr—

//////////NEWSFLASH//////////

Chief Inspector David Kemnay of the Specialist Firearms Command prodded a droplet of sweat from the corner of his eye and whispered into his phone: ‘I’m afraid there’s no way to be sure, sir. We think it’s just Mian’s family in the house, but there could be anyone in there.’

From the other end of the line, Nigel Willis said, ‘Hold off till you get a clear chance to arrest them both. What are they doing now?’

‘Still going back and forth between the house and the car, loading it up.’

‘Is there any indication they’re loading the vehicle with explosives or weapons?’

‘Impossible to tell. It looks like sleeping bags, a tent, cereal boxes. But again, there could be anything inside those packages.’

‘But there’s no danger to the public? The area’s secure?’

‘Officers behind a wall and in an upstairs window opposite, two unmarked vans, all round the back of the house, other houses evacuated.’

‘Good. We need to make these arrests as quickly as is safe, and get them into questioning. MI5 are on the way, but keep them at a distance. If they take any of the evidence, we’ll never—’

‘Wait, Mian’s got into the driver’s seat. The other one’s closed the door to the house. It looks like—’

‘Make the arrest! Make sure that—’

Kemnay had already signalled and his men, in helmets and body armour, were already rising out of their hiding places or jumping down from the back doors of the vans, pointing their submachine guns and shouting over one another, ‘Out of the car! Down on the ground! Out of the car! Down on the ground!’