Nguyen threw down his box and grabbed for the Kalashnikov, swinging the barrel up at waist level. He stepped into the hallway and kicked Fisher, knocking him away from the door, keeping him off balance so he wouldn’t be able to get a good look at the gun. Over Fisher’s shoulder he saw a man at a table, pushing himself to his feet and pointing a handgun towards him. ‘Drop the gun!’ shouted Nguyen, aiming his useless replica at the man’s chest and stepping forward. The man looked confused and began to lower the weapon.

‘We have another target in the flat,’ said the Colonel’s voice in Joker’s ear, calmly and controlled. ‘I repeat, there are now five in the flat. Three in the lounge, two in the hall.’ There was a pause, and then he spoke again. ‘One of the targets in the hallway has an assault rifle. OK, Joker, we have a clear shot at the men in the hall. We’ll take them both out from here. Jump on my command.’ Another pause, enough for three heartbeats. ‘Go!’ said the Colonel. ‘Go, go, go!’

Joker and Ginge dropped together, and a fraction of a second after they let go of the rail they heard the double crack of two high velocity rounds splitting the air.

To Joker it seemed that time slowed right down as they pushed themselves out and twisted in the air, knees slightly bent to absorb the shock. They hit the ground together and slipped their fingers over the triggers of their MP5s. It took a fraction of a second for Joker’s brain to register the scene in the room. There were three of them, two men and a girl, and they all had their backs to the window. The man on the couch was halfway up, the woman was holding a towel over her mouth. The man at the table had a gun in his hand. All were looking at the hallway where a blond-haired man was slumped against the wall, his hand clutched to his blood-smeared chest, obviously just seconds from death. Another man, an Oriental, stood in the hallway with what looked like a Kalashnikov in his hands and blood pouring from a wound in his shoulder. The man’s mouth was opening and closing and he had a look of amazement on his face. He saw Joker, saw the MP5 and then looked down at his own gun as if seeing it for the first time. Joker fired instinctively and put three bullets into the man, two in the chest and one in the head, sending him slamming backwards.

The man at the table began to turn but before he could bring his gun up Ginge hit him with four rounds. Joker took out the man on the couch before he even turned round and he died without knowing what had hit him.