“I never asked,” Fuentes said, looking at her in the mirror. “You been to Colombia before?”

“First time,” she said.

“And? What do you think?”

“Not exactly what I expected.”

“You expected it to be like it was? Escobar? Gold-plated revolvers?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I read the file. I know it’s different now. Even so, it doesn’t match what you see on TV.”

“Medellín is pleasant now. It’s a tourist destination. There are parts you wouldn’t want to get lost in, same as anywhere, but Poblado is nice. The botanical gardens. Guatapé. You get the chance, you should check it out.”

“This isn’t a vacation,” she said, and then, because she realised she sounded catty, she added, “Sorry. I know what you mean. How long have you two been down here?”

“Years,” Miguel said with a rueful smile.

“Two years,” Fuentes added. “They sent us down after we got reports that El Centro and La Frontera were looking to work together. We were here when La Bruja made her move.”

“The locals got a kick out of it,” Miguel said. “There’s always been a romantic side to the narcos. They saw Pablo as Robin Hood, despite the fact that they knew he was a mass-murdering scumbag. There’s an element of taking it to the man about it, that kind of thing, and she’s got the same thing in spades.”

“It’s almost a source of national pride,” Fuentes said. “Their soccer team might suck, but their narcos are the best in the world. I mean, obviously totally fucked up, but in a place like this, where there hasn’t been much to be proud of for years, you can kind of see why they might think that way.”

“It’s also the main reason why we’re going to have to tread really fucking carefully when we get down there,” Miguel said. “It’s better than it was, but the Paisas still won’t like the idea of us taking her out. They’ll see it as a slap in the face.”

Ellie felt the usual irritation at having basic intelligence recited to her by male colleagues, as if the two of them thought that she hadn’t spent hours in the file as she prepared for the operation. She was used to it, though. Orville had been the same, and there had been male colleagues all the way back to the Academy who had taken it upon themselves to help her out when help was the last thing that she needed. She remembered the early days and the frustration that she had felt at their condescension. Taking it personally hadn’t gotten her anywhere, however; on the contrary, it had started to give her an unjustified reputation as prickly and difficult to work with.