Five days earlier

Jaden Wolf knew that from the instant he’d been caught on security camera, he was a marked man and his life as he’d known it was over. That was fine by him. After what he’d witnessed that night, he wanted out. All the way out. And he had no plans ever to return.

He’d encountered no resistance as he made it out of the grounds of Karswell Hall, but he knew that they’d waste no time in coming after him. The clock was ticking. He had to move extremely fast, or all escape routes would be blocked ahead of him and it would be game over. Failure to complete a mission was not an option at the best of times; now that he was a witness to such a dark and terrible secret, there was no way they’d allow him to live. If caught, he would be made to disappear as though no trace of him had ever existed. Reaching the perimeter of the estate he scrambled back over the wall and sprinted to his car. The Audi, like virtually everything else he owned, would have to be abandoned sooner rather than later. He threw himself behind the wheel and took off into the night with a squeal of spinning tyres.

Wolf drove eleven miles in seven minutes before the signs for a village flashed by in his headlights. It was a traditional old place, with a greystone church and cemetery, sleepy timber-framed and flint cottages, a quaint village square and a little stone bridge over a river. He parked the Audi under the shadows of a spreading oak tree, got out and spent a couple of minutes removing its number plates. That would help slow the police’s attempts to ID the abandoned vehicle. They’d soon find that it had no engine or chassis numbers, either. Being traced by the police wasn’t Wolf’s concern, however. More watchful and sinister forces were everywhere. He knew that all too well. He’d been one of their foot soldiers until tonight.

Wolf abandoned the Audi and moved fast and silently through the dark village streets for quarter of a mile until he found what he was looking for. Some of the newest and most hi-tech cars were also the easiest to steal, and Wolf was an expert. The DS 3 Crossback was parked just a few yards from the front door of its owner’s cottage. Wolf took a small electronic device from his pocket that boosted the signal for its keyless central locking while simultaneously relaying it to the key inside the cottage, fooling the system. The locks clunked open. Wolf was inside and away within six seconds.