‘The decision was taken late last night, at the highest level, to take positive action against senior members of the IRA and Sinn Fein. Over the next seven days the top echelons of the organisation will be eliminated, at a time when public opinion will be totally, one hundred per cent, against them. That is the window of opportunity I spoke about. Anything we do now, right now, will have the unqualified backing of the public. This is not, I repeat not, a shoot-to-kill policy. It is a shoot-to-kill operation. A one-off. We have drawn up a list of the twenty-five men, and women, who we see as being the key members of the IRA, without whom we feel the organisation would no longer be a viable terrorist force. A combined, and highly secret, task-force of SAS and SBS operatives will move against them. Wherever possible it will be made to seem like an accident, a car crash, a drugs overdose, a fall downstairs, but if it cannot be done tidily it will be a straight-forward assassination made to look as if it is the work of Protestant extremists. Once the operation is over, the IRA will no longer be an effective threat. Then we can take them on using more legitimate methods, including the formation of a new Anti-Terrorist Task-Force, a single national task-force to counter terrorism. That, however, will be the subject of further meetings later this month. Now, are there any questions?’

Most of the men sitting around the table seemed stunned, though Bromley knew that they would all wholeheartedly support the plan put forward by the Co-ordinator. Most of them had privately been pushing for such a policy for many years, determined that the only way to defeat the IRA was to match their ferocity.

‘I would appreciate it if you would confine your comments to questions,’ the Co-ordinator continued. ‘This is not a discussion forum, there is nothing to be voted on, no consensus is needed. The decision has already been taken at a much higher level. The highest level.’

One of the uniformed police officers coughed and raised his hand. ‘When does the operation start?’ he asked.

The Co-ordinator looked at a slim gold watch on his wrist. ‘It started ten minutes ago,’ he said quietly.

Another hand went up. One of the MI6 representatives. ‘Can we be told who is on the list?’ he asked.

‘Officially there is no list,’ the Co-ordinator said. ‘Nothing has ever been put down on paper, there will be no written record. However, I am able to tell you the names of the twenty-five IRA members that we feel the organisation can least afford to lose.’