I was betting Frederick was former military. His boss had just been murdered, he was on the radar of a ruthless corporation and he was holding it together with not a hair out of place. He had to have some kind of combat experience to be able to process everything that had happened in the last few days and remain professionally detached enough to continue.

Dugdale nodded his head at Frederick. ‘The two of us have attended far too many funerals these last few months. I don’t want to have to hold hands with another crying widow and tell her how sorry I am and what a good man her husband was. I want my black tie to go back to languishing at the back of my wardrobe. We need to shut these bastards down.’

‘Are there any leads on Thatcher’s shooter? An ID could lead us to Tenebris.’ We needed some kind of real-world lead on how to get to a group of people who seemed to operate only remotely.

‘No leads. No CCTV. Nothing,’ said Duggers. ‘Considering it’s a multi-million-pound business, they can afford a professional hit squad. Probably even their own army of Ghosts.’

It made sense they would have muscle-for-hire under their employ who didn’t officially exist. Ghosts had no higher purpose other than to hurt, maim and kill for money. They didn’t care who or why. They just cared about getting paid. They were people who didn’t officially exist. They lived off the grid, making sure they had no verifiable identity. They did what they were told and then they’d disappear, and they were never told anything more than what to do and who to do it to. They never knew who they were working for. They were low-level, low-skilled and totally expendable help.

‘Are you not worried they’ll come for you?’ I had some concerns about doing the school run with someone who had an army of heavily armed Ghosts after him.

Frederick shook his head. ‘Whatever got Thatcher killed was what he found out when I was away. Tenebris must know that he never managed to get the info to me or they would’ve put a hit out on me too. They clearly didn’t want to kill me as a precaution as the death of two agents from the same division within a week would raise more attention than they could handle.’

‘And you have no idea what Thatcher had found?’

‘None. His computer was wiped clean. His mobile is missing. There are no clues as to what he discovered. I approached Dugdale as he was the only other person within Six I knew I could completely trust with this.’