Itchy shifted uncomfortably. As far as Silva knew the closest he’d come to opening a fine champagne was twisting the top off a bottle of cheap Prosecco.

Gavin put the tray down on the low table and Itchy reached for the bottle and began to remove the foil covering. He loosened the wire and eased out the cork. There was a loud pop and the cork shot from his hand, skimming Fairchild’s shoulder and disappearing into the meadow.

‘Well, I hope Rebecca’s a better shot than you.’ Fairchild said. He pointed at the bottle where the froth was beginning to bubble out. ‘Well, pour it, man. I don’t like to see good fizz going to waste.’

Itchy sloshed champagne into the glasses and Fairchild reached for one and raised it to the light.

‘To a steady hand and a good, clean kill,’ he said. ‘Cheers.’

‘When are we going to tell Huxtable?’ Javed asked.

Holm shrugged. They’d worked on the info and had come up with a theory. The container put on the ship in Rotterdam had made the cross-channel journey six times, twice each month in May, June and July. It had joined the Excelsior at Rotterdam and gone to Felixstowe and back to Rotterdam. According to the manifests it never left the ship. The other container had done the same journey except it had joined at Felixstowe. The ship took the route weekly and every second week the two containers were on board. They were, without fail, next to each other on the boat.

‘This is how it goes, yes?’ Holm said. He’d just about got the gist of it now. ‘At Felixstowe container Alpha is loaded onto the Excelsior. The boat departs for Rotterdam. Meanwhile, somewhere in mainland Europe, container Zulu is loaded with whatever it is that’s being smuggled. It goes by road to Rotterdam. No border checks, nothing. It’s loaded onto the Excelsior alongside container Alpha. At some point on the journey from Rotterdam to Felixstowe the containers are opened and whatever’s inside is shifted from one to the other. In Felixstowe, container Alpha is unloaded. The port of origin is listed as Felixstowe. Since that’s in the UK no checks are needed. For some reason the Border Force’s systems aren’t set up to spot the anomaly and the container leaves Felixstowe without even a chance of being examined.’

‘Yes, but what’s in the containers?’

‘Whatever Taher wants. Terrorists and weapons, I suspect.’

‘Every two weeks?’

‘Not necessarily. Could be they continue to move the containers whatever. Perhaps there are usually legitimate goods inside, so if there did happen to be an inspection the Border Force would have to be very lucky to strike gold.’

‘So what do we do next?’