They were deep in enemy territory now. No telling when the resistance might kick off. Keeping in the shadows of the walls, Ben and Boonzie skirted around the side of the castle and flanked the inside of the west wall towards the rear. As they rounded the north-west corner of the castle Ben could see a dark rubble field of rocks and boulders strewn all over the snowy ground. A portion of the north wall had collapsed under the force of the landslide. A panel van that was obviously some kind of service vehicle for the estate had taken a direct hit from a large boulder and was almost entirely crushed. There were various garage blocks and admin units out back, some of which had suffered damage as well. Among them stood a steel building with louvred doors and high-voltage warning signs, about the size of two large shipping containers standing a couple of feet off the ground on concrete risers. Ben guessed this must be the electrical room that supplied all the mains power to Stuart’s residence, filled with essential equipment like voltage regulators and transformers and backup generators. Thick cables snaked from the side of the building and into an underground conduit feeding power to the castle. Ben stepped closer to the electrical room and could hear a droning hum coming from it. Landslide debris lay all around, but the main power source for Stuart’s home had been lucky enough to escape damage.

Time to remedy that. Ben took bomb number four from the sack, dropped it on the ground and kicked it under the raised floor of the electrical room. He signalled to Boonzie and they hurried away to take cover behind one of the garages. Ben dialled up channel 4 on the radio remote and hit SEND.

The blast ripped the silence of the night, much louder up close than the explosion on the mountainside had seemed from far away. A percussive shockwave haloed out from the electrical room as it erupted in a fireball and was torn loose from its concrete risers. The mushroom of flame rolled up out of the smoke. Shrapnel and wreckage cannoned off the buildings. The castle windows all went simultaneously dark. Boonzie flashed Ben a grin and made a thumbs-up.