‘Clever Mommy.’ Mavers shook his head. ‘But it doesn’t work like that, Rebecca. If the documents do exist – and I very much doubt they do – then I’m not going to ask you to take us to them, you’re simply going to tell us where they are.’

Mavers made a small gesture with his hand but Silva didn’t wait for his henchmen to react. She flung herself at the water trough and grabbed the pipe. It broke away from the wall and she was left with a metre-long section of metal in her hands. Water sprayed out in a jet, momentarily disorientating the nearest grunt. Silva stepped forward and swung the pipe at the man holding the gun. He dodged and moved away. She lunged at him again, but as she did so she felt a sharp pain in her midriff followed by a spasm that rushed down her leg. She stumbled to the ground to see the man with the cattle prod standing over her.

‘Shoot her in one knee to start with,’ Mavers said. ‘That will stop her misbehaving. Then get her clothes off and we’ll move on to the next step.’

The man with the gun walked across the room. He raised the weapon and pointed it at Silva. She flinched as a sharp report echoed in the room and a spray of blood flicked across her face.

The man with the gun fell forward, his mouth half open in pain or surprise. He slumped to the floor, fluid pumping from a hole in the side of his head. For a moment Silva thought the gun had suffered some kind of catastrophic failure and exploded in his face. Then she saw the masked figure at the doorway. Dark-blue combat fatigues. A Heckler & Koch machine gun. Special forces. British special forces.

‘Don’t move!’ The figure brandished the gun and came into the room followed by another masked soldier.

‘I don’t know who the fuck you are,’ Mavers said. ‘But I’m with the US government and you’re interfering with an important operation. You’re also trespassing.’

‘Shut up.’ The figure in blue gave an almost imperceptible nod and the second soldier let off a round. The man with the cattle prod reeled back, crumpled and went down. The soldier bent and picked up the gun. He checked the clip and then calmly walked over to Mavers.

‘You won’t get away with this,’ Mavers said. ‘There’ll be serious repercussions.’

He raised an arm but the soldier thrust the weapon into his face and fired. Mavers keeled over, his substantial body shuddering as it hit the floor.

‘What the—?’ Silva said as she recoiled from the shots.

‘No questions.’ The soldier held out a hand and hauled Silva to her feet. ‘Let’s go.’