Holm had grabbed Javed and they’d legged it back to the fence as the forklift zoomed towards the building. No sooner had it disappeared inside than it was out again, sans pallet. The guard they’d seen round the front swung the gates to the airfield shut, and closed and locked the warehouse doors. They crouched behind some shrubs until the guard drove off in a small white van and then they climbed the fence and hid in the dense maize. After they’d watched the aircraft take off, Holm pushed up from the ground, brushing mud from his trousers.

‘That’s it.’ He stared to the west where a few minutes earlier the Saudi plane had disappeared into the night. ‘Weapons.’

‘In that crate?’ Javed stood. ‘How do you know?’

‘A guess based on where we are and the nationality of that aircraft. Worse, it looks as if it’s officially sanctioned.’ Holm started to trudge along the side of the field and back towards the car. He felt deflated. If he took any of this to Huxtable she’d close him down. ‘Certainly somebody turned a blind eye or two. A nod and a wink. An agreement to brush a little dirt under the carpet.’

‘Even if you’re right, it was only one pallet.’

‘One pallet of what, and how often?’ They reached the car and Holm scraped the bottom of his shoes on the sidewall of the front tyre, trying to shift the mud. ‘Whatever, the pallet is going to Felixstowe. Next stop Naples via Rotterdam. We need to get to the port and liaise with the Border Force so they can open up the container.’ Holm got in the car and started up. Javed slipped in the passenger side. Holm slid the car from the field and drove to the main road. He filtered into the traffic. ‘Otherwise the crate is going to Italy where the Angelo will ship it across the Med.’

‘To where?’

‘I don’t know.’ Holm paused as he overtook a coach. ‘Can you get that shipping app up and take a look at past routes the boat has sailed?’

‘Yeah, one mo.’ Javed pulled out his phone. His fingers slid across the screen and he whistled. ‘It’s like a slug’s trail, criss-crossing the Med and looping back on itself, but since the Angelo has been rescuing people in distress, that figures.’

‘But there’s one place the boat’s gone to multiple times, right?’

‘Yes.’ Javed turned his head, keeping the screen hidden from view. ‘Care to guess?’

‘I don’t need to guess, I know,’ Holm said. ‘Tunisia.’

‘The tourist resort of al Hammamet to be precise.’ Javed tapped his phone. ‘Huxtable. We have to tell her what we’ve discovered.’