Wolf had never admitted failure in his life. He was still figuring out his best move when a black Rolls-Royce limousine purred up to the checkpoint and was halted by the security men. The chauffeur rolled down his window and showed them an admission pass. While they examined it, the driver stepped out of the car for a moment to check a front tyre, and the cabin of the limo was momentarily illuminated by the interior light.

That was when Wolf realised, with a shock, that he knew both of the back-seat passengers.

Wolf had personally met very, very few members of the secretive agency he worked for. But he instantly recognised these two men as his superiors. One was a much older man, easily eighty-five, wizened and gaunt, wearing a black suit and sitting in the back of the car clutching a cane between his knees. A very distinctive cane, topped with a silver bird’s head with a long beak and ruby eyes. Wolf remembered it, though he’d only seen the old man once before. The other back-seat occupant, twenty years younger than his travelling companion, was someone Wolf had had occasional contact with over the years.

The big Rolls moved on through the checkpoint, but the image of the two men remained burned on Wolf’s retinas. What was going on here? Why were his agency chiefs apparently attending the same mysterious gathering as the very target they had directed him to eliminate earlier that day? Wolf generally never questioned the reasoning behind his directives, but this was weird. It seemed to suggest that they were all somehow involved together – though in what, Wolf had no idea. And if that was right, then it meant that Wolf had unwittingly become mixed up in some kind of plot to eliminate one of their own. But one of their own what?

Wolf drew away from the checkpoint. He kept well out of sight as he worked his way around the side of the big house, threading through the trees. Karswell Hall was a hell of a grand old country pile, a real billionaire pad, its scores of windows lit up like a starship with exterior floodlamps casting a glow over the immaculate lawn that sloped down from the rear towards a gleaming dark lake at whose centre was a small wooded island, all wreathed in shadow. The guests, maybe fifty of them, were visible through the windows of the manor, standing in groups, talking, sipping drinks. The gathering was obviously a formal event, judging by the sombre suits and ties of everyone present. Wolf noticed that there was not one woman among them.

Crouched down low and invisible among the trees, Wolf used his compact but powerful telephoto lens to search for Abbott among the guests, but couldn’t make him out in the crowd. Maybe Wolf would get an opportunity to take care of Abbott that night, or maybe not. He kept waiting, and watching.