‘I want to help, too. Problem is, we don’t have the first idea what this is all about. We don’t even know where he’s gone. London’s not exactly a small place.’

Jeff agreed. ‘Hunting for him there would be like trying to find a fart at a sewage plant. No point in even trying.’

Tuesday slurped coffee and looked deflated. ‘So we literally don’t even know where to start.’

Jeff thought for a moment, then said, ‘Maybe we do. Just because he couldn’t go to Scotland for whatever reason, doesn’t mean we can’t.’

Tuesday wasn’t comfortable with the idea. ‘I don’t know, Jeff. Sounds like taking a risk to me. If we’re right and she’s being watched—’

‘You ever been to Scotland before?’ Jeff cut in.

‘Can’t say I have.’

‘Last time I was there was with the SBS, visiting HMNB Clyde, years ago.’ The naval base, thirty-five miles from Glasgow, was home to Britain’s arsenal of nuclear weapons, a key potential target for attack and therefore an important location for the Royal Navy’s own Special Forces units. ‘The point being,’ Jeff went on, ‘that nobody knows our faces in Grace’s neck of the woods, including whoever might be watching her. We’d be just two strangers in town, while we scope things out. Keep an eye. See what’s what.’

‘She lives in some tiny, remote Highland village,’ Tuesday said. ‘Population of about thirty people and a dog, right? Now, I’m no expert on the demographics of rural Scotland, but I’m pretty sure that a black guy is going to stick out like a sore thumb there. The locals have probably never even seen one before, except on TV.’

‘Hiding in plain sight,’ Jeff said. ‘They’ll be so busy wondering about you, nobody’ll stop to ask what we’re really doing there.’

Tuesday wasn’t at all reassured by his friend’s optimism. ‘Wonderful. And has it occurred to you that the bad guys, whoever they are, have presumably seen our ugly mugs plastered over the Le Val website? Which means, if they know who Ben is, then it’s a fair bet they know who we are, too.’

‘It’s a reasonable point,’ Jeff conceded.

Tuesday said, ‘It gets worse. A thought came to me earlier, just as I was finally starting to nod off, and got me in a sweat.’

‘What?’

‘Well, we’ve deduced that Ben might be under instructions not to make contact with her. Right?’

Jeff nodded. ‘Right. So?’

‘So therefore, if he did, whoever’s making this threat against her would know about it. Or else, why would Ben be so insistent that we didn’t pick up her calls?’

‘Okay,’ Jeff said.