He looked back to see two guns raised at him.

‘What the—’

‘Drop it.’ I motioned towards his gun.

‘Now, fuckwit,’ said Mrs Moulage. She took a step towards him.

He did as instructed and his gun clattered to the floor.

‘We’ve got one,’ I announced to Jake.

‘We’re pulling up outside now.’

‘What’s your mission?’ asked Mrs Moulage. ‘What are you here to do?’

The Ghost kept his mouth closed in a firm line.

Mrs Moulage cocked the safety off her gun and raised it to his face. ‘You do realise I’m looking for any reason at all to justify shooting dead the man who dared to call me ninety.’

The Ghost muttered a series of expletives. ‘I’ll tell you. But not here. Let’s get outside this building and I’ll sing like a bird.’

‘Sing here and sing now,’ Mrs Moulage told him, pressing her gun firmly into his forehead.

‘Listen lady, get the hint – we need to get outside.’ He was pleading now. ‘We were given a black box and our orders were to install it in the first-floor office with the glass window overlooking the big room. My associate is doing it now.’

That did not sound good.

He was describing the factory manager’s office. An incendiary device placed in there would cause maximum damage to the factory floor below. The Snake surely can’t have been so threatened by today’s gathering that the solution was to blow the whole place up?

‘I was just meant to make sure no one went upstairs.’ The Ghost glanced back over his shoulder. ‘He’s probably about to finish, so come on, we have to get out of here.’ He was fidgeting now. Sweat was beginning to drip down his bald head. A glistening cue ball.

‘Why the rush? It’s not like you two idiots are going to activate the device while you’re still here?’ asked Mrs Moulage.

The Ghost shook his head. ‘We were told not to touch it. To install it and get out. They said someone inside the big room was going to activate it. So please. Let’s just go, OK?’

‘Entering the Warehouse now.’

I took a step back from Mrs Moulage and the Ghost to talk to Jake. ‘Go straight to the manager’s office. A Ghost is installing an unidentified electrical device in there. We have the second Ghost.’

‘Copy that.’

Mrs Moulage looked across at me. ‘I’ll take him outside. You’d better get back in there.’

She was right. Until the device was found I needed to be in there keeping watch in case whoever they had inside the room triggered it. Rigging the Warehouse to blow up a room full of MI6 operatives’ husbands and wives seemed a little extreme. What were they trying to achieve?