The vehicle interior instantly filled with spreading fire that licked and curled from the open window and consumed the body in a crackling fury. Ben took another step back from the heat. He muttered, ‘And there you go. R.I.P. Jaden Wolf.’

Wolf shook his head ruefully. ‘Never thought it would end like this for me. What a way to go, eh?’

Within minutes, the whole van had become an inferno as the remaining contents of the fuel tank caught light and the flames spread everywhere. Ben and Wolf retreated to a safe distance in case the thing blew up, and watched. The sweet night air filled with the sickening stench of burning rubber and scorched flesh. Both of them had seen plenty of vehicles burn, and they knew exactly what the extreme high temperatures of a gasoline conflagration could do to a human being trapped inside. When the fire eventually died out, all that would remain of Alejandro Morales was a charred, crispy, hairless, featureless mess, his only readily identifiable characteristic a perfectly preserved set of titanium and gold teeth.

‘Crude,’ Wolf said. ‘But effective.’

‘I’m glad you approve.’

‘You owe me for the teeth, though.’

‘If I die, you can take it out of my life insurance.’

Ben just had to hope that his plan would give him the breathing space that he needed to rescue this whole messed-up situation. The blaze could probably be seen for miles and would doubtless attract all kinds of local attention, but not even the boldest of looters would be too inclined to stick their hand in a burnt corpse’s mouth on the off-chance of finding something worth stealing. The odds were that the cops would get here before too long, and that Alejandro’s remains would be carted off by the coroner before Saunders’ spooks landed on the scene. Ben wasn’t too worried about that, because he was betting that Saunders had more than enough power and influence to gain access to the morgue to examine the evidence.

Ben had been keeping the tablet phone that Saunders had given him turned off, to avoid the risk of being tracked. He turned it on now to fix the GPS location and then take multiple pictures of the burning van from different angles. As the wind changed direction for a moment he was able to snap some closer-up shots of the rapidly charring body.

Meanwhile Wolf was putting his holdall into the back seat of the Alpina and getting into the front. Ben joined him a moment later, fired up the engine, slewed the car around on the track and they sped off. Wolf bade a sad goodbye to the town of Albarracín, and then they were racing northwards towards the French border. Wolf remained silent for a long time, leaning back with his eyes closed. Ben smoked and concentrated on making maximum progress.