‘No idea. No one here is considered a target.’

Mrs Moulage opened the green silk clutch she was carrying and pulled out a pistol. She tucked it into the waistband of her trousers. The peplum top neatly covered the bulk of the gun. Fashion and function.

Jake crackled into my earpiece, ‘G confirms that four minutes ago two hostiles entered through Door Three.’ The Warehouse only had cameras outside the front and back entrances. There were none inside as we never wanted anything here recorded.

I turned to Mrs Moulage. ‘Two hostiles in the building.’

I opened my tote bag. R & D had inserted a false bottom into it that could only be opened with my thumbprint. Toddlers could get everywhere and empty everything. I pulled out my gun and secured it into the customised hole. The barrel now peeped out of what looked like a buckle on the side. Innocent-looking to a stray WAF delegate, deadly to an invading Ghost.

‘This is meant to be a secure location.’ Mrs Moulage glowered at the security violation.

‘The Snake must have sent them straight to us.’

I tried to think of the last time I’d fought alongside an armed pensioner.

I was drawing a blank.

‘We need to make sure no one gets inside this room.’ It was down to us to protect the lives of the Sheep inside. The ‘We are Family’ initiative was meant to help us identify the Snake; we never considered that we could be putting innocent lives at risk. Whatever these women knew, it was clearly enough to rattle the Snake.

Mrs Moulage looked over my shoulder and her hands flew to her mouth. ‘Please don’t hurt us!’

I turned to see a short bald-headed man in a dark jacket walking towards us, gun raised.

‘Oh my God, what do you want?’ I put a quiver in my voice I was particularly proud of.

‘Keep quiet and I don’t hurt you.’

Mrs Moulage started going through the motions of hyperventilating. I rubbed her back and looked up at the Ghost with the gun. ‘Just please, please don’t point that thing at my mother. She has a heart condition.’

Mrs Moulage now started to make strange high-pitched sounds as she continued with the heavy, exaggerated breathing noises.

‘Just hold on, it’s going to be fine.’ I kept my left arm round her, my right hand clasped firmly at the gun inside my handbag. Ideally we needed to disarm him without firing a shot. Gunfire would cause panic among the hundred people on the other side of the double doors.

‘Fuck’s sake.’ The Ghost spoke into his earpiece. ‘I’ve got two women here. One of them’s about ninety. She looks like she’s about to cark it.’

He turned his head slightly as he listened to what his colleague was saying. That was all we needed. The briefest of seconds to transform from terrified women to women in charge.