Briffaut was not happy, but he could also see the panicking crowd. ‘Okay, but no bang-bang.’

De Payns leaped out of the helicopter, Shrek and Templar behind him, and they ran to the main lobby. A man of around thirty raced out of the lobby, straight into de Payns.

‘Is that gunfire?’ asked the man. ‘What’s happening?’

‘Stay calm,’ said de Payns, grabbing the man by the upper arms. ‘Are there any armed people in there?’

‘No,’ said the man. ‘The soldiers went into the building and the shooting started on the other side of the wall. Am I safe?’ he asked, looking at the rifles.

‘Safer with us standing here,’ said Templar. ‘What’s going on in there?’

De Payns turned back and saw Briffaut staring at them from the helicopter doorway—he decided against going into the building even as the automatic gunfire rang out and voices screamed in renewed terror.

As he turned back from Briffaut, he was struck by how orderly some of the employees were in their departure. ‘Follow those people,’ he said to the man, pointing to the people making their way calmly across the car park. ‘Get out on to the footpath,’ he said, pointing to the main road beyond the Saint-Cloud campus. ‘But take it easy—no panicking.’

The car park was now awash with people, many of them running, but amid the crowd he noticed a woman in a yellow hard hat and a hi-vis vest. She was walking away from him, across the car park, but in a very controlled way. De Payns was intrigued—how could someone turn their back on a scene of armed conflict without so much as a glance over their shoulder? It was loud, it was confronting; a gun battle demanded your attention. You couldn’t not look at it.

The woman made a left turn, seemingly to get to her car, and de Payns’ heart jumped slightly, like he’d woken up. He’d seen that profile, that blonde hair, just recently—it was Heidi Winnen.

‘Christ, it’s Winnen,’ he said, lifting his rifle to a two-handed grip and accelerating away from Templar and Shrek.

He raced across the concrete car park, triggering screams from the employees as they realised there was an armed man in plain clothes running among them. The commotion alerted Winnen and she turned, thirty metres away from de Payns, and as she pivoted she raised a handgun from her belt. She aimed at him and de Payns stepped behind a Peugeot, keeping his rifle sights on the blonde woman.

‘That’s enough, Heidi,’ he shouted, sights on her as she shuffled sideways behind a van, loosing two shots in his direction.

‘Well, if it isn’t the secret service. How the hell did you find me?’ she yelled.