After some subdued grumblings of protest, the prisoners threw back their hoods and reluctantly stripped off their masks. As their faces became visible under the moonlight Ben’s disappointment worsened, because the man he knew as Saunders wasn’t among them either. That wasn’t good. Ben needed to get them all, and Saunders most of all. If Saunders went free, all this was for nothing. Neither Grace nor Wolf nor the Le Val team nor Ben himself would ever be safe.

Jeff motioned his pistol towards the house. ‘Right then, you shower of sick pricks,’ he commanded them. ‘Quick march, on the double.’ Several among the crowd hesitated and seemed about to try to make a run for it, even though there was nowhere to go. Ben fired a shot into the ground at their feet, making them jump. The silenced pistol sounded like a handclap. The bullet threw up a spray of dirt. He said, ‘You want to run? Be my guest. See how far you get.’

‘I want them to run,’ Wolf snarled. ‘Oh, please run.’

Nobody ran.

‘Now move it,’ Ben said.

It was a large number of prisoners for three captors to handle, but these weren’t the kind of dangerous and desperate enemy warriors that Special Forces soldiers were used to dealing with. They were flabby, unfit, unhealthy men in their middle age and above, whose idea of exercise was a leisurely round of golf and whose main form of cardiac workout was watching innocent people get violently put to death just for fun. Ben, Wolf and Jeff started herding them back up the moonlit lawn towards the house. A moment later, three captors became five as Tuesday and Reaper came running from the trees and caught up with them. Tuesday was carrying the .338 Remington with its bipod legs folded. Reaper, clutching another of the pistols captured from Dudley’s place, was out of breath but his face was split wide open in a huge grin. ‘Fuck me, I haven’t had this much fun since we cleared out those militants in Kabul.’

‘Nice job, Tues,’ Jeff said.

‘Fish in a barrel,’ Tuesday replied.

Ben scanned the house. He was expecting more trouble at any moment. The speed and surprise of the attack would have caught the armed security team unawares, but they’d bounce back quickly. ‘Eyes open, folks. We’re going to have company.’

‘Already met a couple of patrols in the woods,’ Reaper said. ‘The first two guys were checking cameras and we let’m go, ’coz it was too early to kick things off. The second pair was just half an hour ago. Got a little too close to our OP. Won’t do that again in a hurry.’ He tossed Ben a radio.

Two down. That still left an unknown number of guards. Ben turned the radio on and could hear the sound of all hell breaking loose inside the house as the security team realised something was happening.