They drove through the south-west of the sprawling city, Thierry reading the scene’s opening descriptions, de Payns jotting them down as points in the notebook. Scene seven was an exterior shot of Rawalpindi’s city streets during the day. The hero was going to be running down the footpath and through a souk to deliver a message to his dying mother. De Payns wrote the street name—Ganj Mandi—and made notes that would please a secret policeman: modern clothes, no hijabs, clean streets … Then he wound down the window and took his first photographs of the streetscape and people.

The team relaxed a little with the first pictures in the can. Templar drove them out of the city blocks and got them onto the Islamabad Expressway, where he accelerated into the fast traffic going south. The ability of a Western person to drive safely and inconspicuously in Asia was an underrated skill, and one that de Payns always relied on with Templar.

Templar jammed the Maxima between two overloaded trucks and settled into the traffic. ‘From here, eleven minutes,’ he said.

The Material and Energy Research Centre crouched like a provincial high school in the near distance as they took an off-ramp from the expressway on the south-western outskirts of Rawalpindi. Further west was the international airport and the M2 road to Lahore. The land around the MERC looked as if it had been put aside for government uses—there were trees and patches of grazing areas but not a lot of buildings or houses. As they slowed in a small bunch of shops de Payns noticed dogs on the street, and he took photographs. He needed his camera filled with images consistent with a movie scouting mission.

‘In three seconds, look to your right,’ said Templar, guiding the car out of a clutch of shops and low-rise office buildings and up a hill. De Payns looked to his right—they were clear of buildings and looking down on the MERC complex, about two kilometres away across brownish scrublands. Inside the perimeter fencing de Payns recognised a collection of low-rise, commercial structures with driveways connecting them and a single gatehouse at the lone exit and entry.

A large roundabout loomed at the western end of the road they were on. Templar took a right, so they were driving in a northerly direction on a single-lane main road with high-quality asphalt.

‘Okay,’ said Templar. ‘In one kilometre on the right is the road to the MERC. Check out the service station on the left before the turn-off, and then we’ll go through a bunch of shops which includes the cafe.’