She had then gone on to recce the location of the next hit. And in hindsight that had been a mistake because when she returned she vaulted over the wall at a different spot and landed on a pile of clay pots that had crashed to the ground and alerted Laura Jefferson to her presence.

So instead of creeping up to the kitchen and shooting the woman as she moved around inside, Rosa had been caught in the glare of the patio light.

It had distracted her, and as she fired that first shot she’d known it would miss the target. So she’d fired more but she hadn’t anticipated that Jefferson would herself be armed and able to return fire.

‘Fuck.’

So now she was having to run for her life back to where she’d left the bike, and she knew the cops wouldn’t be far behind. The two who’d been sitting in the car in front of the house would have been alerted and they would already be calling for backup.

The short alley opened out onto a residential street with lots of parked cars and thankfully no pedestrians that she could see. Rosa veered to the left and picked up speed along the sidewalk. Her breath came in short, painful gasps, and the blood thundered in her ears.

By running she knew she’d be drawing attention to herself, especially in her cycle leathers and woollen hat. But she had no choice. She had to get to the bike as quickly as possible.

If anyone was unfortunate enough to see her face then she would have to kill them. But she didn’t want to be forced to do that because she’d already made a big enough mess of things. And that was something she wasn’t accustomed to. She rarely made mistakes, which was why she was so highly rated. The best in the business.

But what had happened this evening would do nothing for her reputation. She had fucked up, and that had never happened before.

Luckily she reached the bike before encountering anyone. She jumped on it without bothering to get the helmet from the saddlebag.

A car drove slowly by as she started the engine, but she was pretty sure the driver didn’t look her way.

A second later she was on the move and sirens were shrieking from all directions as she sped through the unfamiliar back streets of Balham.

She fixed her jaw like a metal clamp and gave the road ahead her full attention.

Suddenly there were more cars and more people as she approached the main drag. She had to swerve to avoid a red bus. Then she was forced to mount the pavement when a van braked hard in front of her. Several people leapt out of her way and a woman screamed.