Saunders had managed to crawl about a dozen yards with his broken left leg trailing behind him. He seemed to be trying to head for the lake, as though he thought he could swim away to freedom. Then he must have noticed out of the corner of his eye the approaching figure silhouetted against the flames of the house, because he stopped crawling and wedged himself up on one elbow to crane his neck around and look. Recognition dawned across his face as Ben stepped closer.

‘Hope.’

Ben stopped. Smoke drifted across the lawn and floated over the lake like mist. Behind him, another section of roof came down with a crash and entombed the remains of the Pandemonium Club deeper in burning wreckage.

It was almost over. But not quite.

‘You and I weren’t supposed to meet again,’ Ben said to the wounded man. ‘Looks like your plan didn’t quite work out, did it, Saunders?’

‘The name is Fitzroy.’

‘I know,’ Ben said. ‘But to me you’ll always be the man who sat beside me on the plane. That was the biggest mistake you ever made.’

‘You really are quite a fellow. You seem to have been a step ahead of me all along.’

‘Not all along,’ Ben said.

‘Now I suppose you’ve come to finish me off. A merciful end for the dying.’ Saunders, or Fitzroy, or whatever his real name was, coughed and spat red.

Maybe he was dying, or maybe he wasn’t. Ben nodded. ‘You’re done, one way or the other. But I won’t shoot a man who’s down.’

‘How very sporting of you, Major. Then you’ll have to help me stand up. I don’t think I can quite manage it on my own.’

Ben stepped closer, stood over him and put out a hand. Saunders reached up and took it. He was hurt and bloody and racked with pain, but he was tough. He didn’t cry out as Ben hauled him to his feet, but stood there swaying with his weight on one foot and the damaged leg hanging limp. The red glow of the flames reflected in his eyes and made him look reptilian.

Saunders smiled and said, ‘You’re a damn fool, Hope.’

And then, quick as a snake and far more aggressively than a dying man should be capable of, he dipped a hand inside his torn, tattered jacket and came out with a big black Colt automatic that he thrust towards Ben’s face and fired. Blue-white muzzle flash exploded from its barrel and the blast split the night like a bomb.