Holm eased himself into his chair. He wasn’t sure how much longer they could keep this quiet anyway. ‘Just do it,’ he said. ‘RAF Wittering.’

Within in a few seconds Javed had found a Financial Times article detailing a trade summit that had taken place at the airbase. A huge arms deal had been signed off by the secretary of state for defence, and a top Saudi diplomat had attended along with the US deputy ambassador and several senior military figures from the UK and American military. There’d been a ceremonial handover of the first tranche of arms and the shipment included surface-to-air missiles and other air defence equipment. Afterwards there’d been a reception hosted by Allied American Armaments.

‘Surface-to-air missiles,’ Javed said. ‘The thought of Taher getting his hands on a couple of those is chilling.’

‘American Armaments.’ Holm looked at the article. ‘That’s the Hope family, right? The Hope family, as in Karen Hope.’

‘Yes.’ Javed rapped the keyboard and did a fresh search.

Holm leaned in and read more. The Hope family were of Italian origin and Brandon Hope had returned to his roots. He’d married an Italian and settled in Italy. This after several years as a diplomat in Riyadh. His experience in the Middle East had come in handy when he’d begun to get involved in the family business, and according to the Financial Times he’d been instrumental in brokering the recent deal thanks to his relationship with Jawad al Haddad, a billionaire Saudi with connections to the royal family.

‘Haddad. Shit.’ Holm remembered something he’d overheard in the situation room earlier. ‘There was an attempt on his life a few days ago. Dissident Saudis apparently, but whoever it was, his wife was killed in the attack. Have a guess where?’

‘Saudi Arabia, I assume?’

‘Wrong. Positano. A stone’s throw from Naples. It only stuck in my mind because we were there at the time. Now the location appears to be more than a coincidence.’

‘Definitely, boss. Look at this.’ Javed had clicked open another page. ‘Several years ago Brandon Hope set up an aid charity that operates across the Middle East and North Africa. Among other things it runs a boat that rescues migrants who are attempting to cross the Mediterranean.’ Javed looked up. ‘That was the boat we saw Mohid Latif disembark from. The Angelo.’

‘A rich man’s plaything. That’s what Luigi the cafe owner said. And remember the captain of the Angelo explaining to Mohid Latif that a meeting had been called off? Something about helicopters and police and it being too risky? Latif could have been going to meet Haddad in Positano. We should have been on to this before. We were too blinkered in going after Taher. I was too blinkered. Shoe leather rather than research.’

‘Do you think Brandon Hope is directly involved with Taher?’