‘It’s way too risky coming back into the UK on a scheduled flight. This way you’ll be pre-cleared. It’s unlikely there will be anyone to check you when you land. Here.’ Gavin took one hand off the wheel and reached into a pocket and pulled out a business card. ‘This is the place. If anything should happen, get to the airfield.’

‘If anything should happen?’ Silva took the card. ‘I don’t like the sound of that.’

‘Standard procedure, isn’t it? A backup plan?’

‘Mate,’ Itchy said, ‘we wouldn’t have needed a backup plan if you’d stayed calm.’

For a moment Gavin concentrated on the road ahead. Then he shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. I guess I got carried away with the operation.’

Silva said nothing. When someone got carried away things went wrong. That’s how it worked in the army. That’s why you obeyed orders, did your bit, but no more.

It took them an hour of tortuous driving along tiny roads and tracks to get to the rendezvous point, and it was close to midnight when Gavin pulled into a lay-by behind a red sports car. He dimmed the lights on the van.

‘Lona,’ he said.

Javed expressed his disappointment when Holm said there’d be no Italian meal.

‘We’re going to sit here and watch the boat,’ Holm said. ‘After driving all this way I’m not going to give up so easily. We’ll stay all night if necessary. If Kowlowski leaves with the container, we’ll follow him.’

The refugees were processed and taken away in a couple of coaches. The police and customs officers left and several of the Angelo’s crew disembarked. An array of sodium lights bathed the empty dockside in orange.

‘This is a waste of time, boss,’ Javed said. ‘We could have been on our second bottle of Chianti by now, bellies nicely full with pasta, the prospect of some delicious gelato ahead.’

‘This isn’t a culinary tour,’ Holm said.

‘More’s the pity. Do you think old Huxtable would let us take a couple of days off? See Naples and die?’

‘If Huxtable finds out you’ve been gallivanting on taxpayers’ money, you will see Naples and die.’

‘Whatever. It would be better than going straight back to—’

‘Stop.’ Holm held up his hand and pointed at the ship. ‘Look, some more people are leaving the boat.’