‘Blue, preparing charge,’ came Whinger’s voice. ‘Wait out.’

‘Red, roger.’ My heart was going like a hammer. I imagined Whinger deftly taping a length of det cord down the centre of the door. I glanced either way at the dark, helmeted faces beside me and gave a reassuring twitch of my head. The lads had heard Whinger in their earpieces, but naturally hadn’t understood what he said, so I made taping motions round our own doorway. Both got it, grinned back and nodded.

But I was wrong. Suddenly I heard Whinger say, ‘Blue. We have a problem. I can see through a glass panel in the fire-escape door. There are two guards sitting outside the apartment, in the corridor. Wait one.’

I made an instant decision. ‘Red. You’ll have to drop them. I’ll use your shots as the signal to go.’

‘OK,’ said Whinger softly. ‘Ready when you are.’

‘Red. Roger. Control – is Black on schedule?’

‘Da, da. Chyornii gotovi,’ came Anna’s voice. I could tell that the excitement was getting to her as well because for a moment she forgot to translate. Then she said, ‘Yes. Black ready.’

‘Red. Starting countdown now. Sixty, fifty, forty . . .’ I imagined the Black team wagon speeding towards the Mafia entrance, silenced weapons at the ready. The gale was certainly going to help mask any noise they made.

‘Twenty . . . ten . . .’

Jesus, I was thinking, I hope this goes our way, because we shouldn’t be anywhere near here.

‘Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five . . . Stand by, stand by . . . GO!’

The hammer of rounds going down in the corridor came clearly through to us. With my charge held flat to the glassed upper half of the door, I knelt with my head tucked down, away from the blast, and squeezed my clacker.

BOOM! The blast made the inner wall shudder. I raised my head. The entire glass panel had vanished. Through the hole I lobbed a stun grenade and ducked again, eyes averted.

BANG! A sharper, louder explosion. I came upright again. Pieces of glass were tinkling down. The lights in the room had gone out.

‘Poshli!’ I shouted at Igor. ‘Go!’

In he went with a wild yell, head-first through the gap. I heard a thud as he hit the floor and scrabbling noises as he scuttled sideways. Then Nikolai was at the opening, hammering long bursts into the room with his Gepard. He was screaming obscenities too.

Hardly had he opened up when there came a second explosion as Whinger blew the door from the corridor. More rounds started going down inside the flat – bursts of seven or eight. Too long to be properly selective.

Empty cases cascaded on to the floor of the balcony beside me. Nikolai threw down an empty magazine, smacked home a full one and continued to fire. For a moment I felt a bit of a prick, lying there against the safety of the wall while guys were risking their lives inside.