I walked over to the cabinet at the back of the canteen and took out a bottle of whisky. I opened it and poured him a large shot.

I didn’t want to probe, didn’t want to ask, but that Ghost may have been his first kill. Having scanned his service record, eight years as an officer speeding through the ranks in the army didn’t mean close combat. It didn’t mean having to cut down a man coming at you.

I poured myself one and downed it. It burned the back of my throat.

Frederick downed his and I poured him another.

‘I used the Clean Team once,’ he said.

‘Really? I didn’t think they let you get that down and dirty at Six.’

Frederick smiled. The whisky was doing its job. A bit of colour was returning to his cheeks.

‘My brother and his family were staying. We all got NoroVirus. Pretty much every imaginable surface of our kitchen and living room was sprayed with puke.’ He shook his head. ‘The smell just wouldn’t go.’

‘So you called in a favour.’

‘Well, there have to be some perks to the job, right? It was amazing. They got stains out of the wooden floor that had been ingrained in there since we bought the house four years earlier.’

‘You got any other tips?’

‘Yes.’ He took another gulp of whisky. ‘Get one of those battlefield-grade, military-issue iPad covers. Perfect for when on tour in Afghanistan or at home with two kids under three.’

Jake and Hattie came back into the canteen.

‘Seven in total. Three still alive. I’ve run them all through the system. No IDs, no facial recognition. As expected they’re all Ghosts,’ said Hattie.

‘I’ve had a brief chat with them.’ Jake’s eyes flashed. ‘All they know is they were hired for a break-in and their objective was to steal all our hardware – laptops, USB sticks, hard drives, anything they could find.’

It made sense. Tenebris had a sophisticated IT team who would undoubtedly have little trouble hacking any of the hardware the Ghosts brought them.

‘They’re pretty pissed about the site being occupied and it not being the easy job that was advertised. I said they should take it up with HR. Although they should be pretty embarrassed that the seven of them got defeated by one Rat with a doll, a handful of glitter and some fucking crisps.’ Jake looked at me and laughed. ‘I’m impressed, Tyler.’ He went to the back of the canteen and got another couple of glasses.

‘How did they get in?’ I asked Hattie.

‘Through one of the service tunnels. They used some sophisticated device to hack the system and a faked security card. These goons would’ve had to get the information from a Snake. To manage to get in, even with some clever technology, they would have to be familiar with our protocols.’