Boonzie’s weapon dropped from his hand and he slid down the wall to the floor. His teeth were clenched and his eyes were screwed shut in pain. He suddenly looked twenty years older, and terribly fragile. In that moment, Ben truly thought he was about to lose him. When Boonzie was able to speak, after several seconds, it seemed to take a superhuman effort to get the words out. ‘I’m—I’m fine,’ he gasped breathlessly. ‘Be okay. Just … a wee bit tired. Need tae rest a while. You go on.’

Ben shook his head. ‘No way. Forget it. I’m staying right here with you.’

Boonzie spent a few more moments fighting to gather himself. He swallowed gulps of air. Finally he managed to focus his eyes on Ben, and gave him a look so intense that Ben almost backed away. ‘I said go on, laddie! Move it or I’ll shoot ye myself!’

Ben hovered, indecisive, until he realised that the decision had already been made for him.

He left the sack of bombs with his friend and pressed on alone.

The double and triple doses of morphine and crystal meth were wearing off fast, and now the agony of Carl Hacker’s shattered shoulder was beating through him like tribal drums as he made his way, groping and stumbling, through the darkness of the castle.

Everything had started going to shit in the aftermath of the first explosion. Then just as he’d been getting his men organised into search teams while he went off looking for his boss, the bloody lights had gone off. Now he was alone, and the sporadic gunfire rattling within the castle walls that he feared was the sound of his gang getting systematically wiped out only made him feel more isolated with every passing moment. He’d tried calling Stuart’s mobile, but was getting no reply. Where the hell was the bastard?

Hacker tucked his pistol inside his bloody trouser waistband and was about to try again when his phone rang in his hand. It wasn’t Stuart, but Biggs, sounding panic-stricken. ‘Sod this, mate, we’re getting out! Khan, Hardstaff, Walker, Davies and me. You should come with us.’

‘It’s only one man,’ Hacker muttered through his pain. ‘You’re not going to run from just one man.’

‘Bollocks to that,’ Biggs said. ‘There’s got to be a whole sodding SAS unit going through the place. They’re mowing us down like sodding grass!’

‘Where’s Creece? He with you?’

‘No idea, pal. Far away from here, if he’s got any sense. So are you coming with us, or what?’

‘No,’ Hacker replied grimly. ‘I’m staying. I need to find the boss.’

‘Then good bloody luck, mate. We’re off.’