For perhaps a minute the roar persisted, as the pilot came in to land on the helipad. Then he shut his engine down and the noise fell away to a dying whine.

Sasha was already on the air. ‘Zheordie – helicopter in.’

‘Yeah. Did you see what sort?’

‘Small civilian, passenger aircraft. Three to four persons.’

I knew Sasha couldn’t see the pad from where he was, but he would get a look at the incoming party if the people walked the few yards down to the villa.

‘They’ll probably come down to the house,’ I told him. ‘Stay on the air and let me know.’

‘Prinyato.’

A couple of minutes later he said, ‘Now they are coming. Three men. I think one is Akula. I recognise . . . Yes, definitely this is Shark.’

‘What are they doing?’

‘They are coming to the door. Door opens in front. Inside house now. Zheordie?’

‘Yes?’

‘I notice something. When they were five metres distant, door open avtomaticheskii. And why? Some persons inside are watching with cameras.’

‘That’s right. They’ve got closed-circuit TV. I filmed the cameras.’

My mind was racing. Had the prisoners been taken upstairs for another session of interrogation, this time by Shark himself? Had he brought some ace torturer with him, or maybe a nuclear expert, to find out the truth about the bomb?

I reported the arrival of the chopper to Bill Chandler. ‘It could be set to lift our guys out,’ I warned him. ‘Or the bomb. Is there any way the Yanks can track a helicopter if it takes off from here?’

‘I’ll ask,’ he said. ‘I’ll pass the message through. You’ll tell us if it does move.’

‘Of course. What about binning the HALO and bringing the QRF in earlier by chopper?’

‘Not a chance.’ Bill was adamant. ‘We still don’t have clearance to fly in Russian airspace. Besides, we need the element of surprise. Our information from Colonel Gerasimova in Moscow is that the defence force is bigger than you think. There’s a bigger barracks down the valley with a hundred or more in it. Plus any local guys they can muster.’

‘Is that right?’

‘Yep. And listen, Geordie, the colonel’s done us another favour. She got on to Kelsen, the firm of Finnish architects who built the villa, and faxed us the plans.’

‘Oh, great!’ I said.

‘There’s a basement floor,’ Bill went on. ‘That’s got gym, games room, sauna, showers and so on. Then, below that, there’s another floor, a kind of sub-basement, marked “Storage”. That tallies well with the pictures you sent.’