‘You’re lucky, love, your order only came in twenty minutes ago. Three boxes, was it?’

‘That’s right,’ said Abu Mujahid, pretending to examine a postcard while he looked out for a CCTV camera in the shop.

‘I’ll get the Useless One to give me a hand. Just be a second.’ She pointed to a heavily moustached white-haired man serving a customer. She called out: ‘Oi, lard arse. Give this customer a hand.’ She turned to Abu Mujahid conspiratorially. ‘My husband. The parcels are bulky, so you’d best get your van out front, but take care. The wardens are sharp-eyed round here.’

Ten minutes later, the van was in front of the shop.

‘What you’ve got in here then?’ said the white-haired shop owner.

‘Photography equipment,’ said Abu Mujahid coldly. ‘Birdwatching.’

‘Oh,’ said the white-haired man, looking surprised. He handed the second of the boxes over to Abu Mujahid, who stacked it in the rear, shut the doors and clambered into the driver’s seat.

#

Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London

Tony Metcalfe of Defence Equipment and Support was a jowly man in his mid-fifties with greying hair plastered greasily over his forehead. His double-breasted jacket and floral tie looked like a relic from the early 1990s. He ushered Bose and Campbell into a conference room on the second floor of the Ministry of Defence offices.

‘Sorry we can’t do coffee – the machine’s broken and we can’t get the parts,’ he said in an Etonian drawl. ‘I understand that your boss has been ruffling some feathers. Best way to get things done round here. What do you need?’

Bose nodded to Campbell.

‘We’re tracing an assault rifle found at the scene of yesterday’s terror attack in Leeds and which we believe was also used at the Pall Mall murders,’ said Campbell, sliding over a photo. ‘It’s army issue, an SA80 A3. The number’s been filed off and it’s not been used in any other known criminal activity.’

‘Hmm. That’s going to be a tall order,’ said Metcalfe, rubbing his face as he eyed the picture. ‘This looks like an A3 all right, the most recent upgrade. There’s a lot of these in circulation now – sourcing this baby is a bit like looking for the proverbial needle.’

‘I understand the army has upgraded thousands of these over the last few years from the old A2s,’ said Campbell, who had spent the morning reading up on the weapon. ‘Could this have been nicked during the refurbishment programme – say from the factory or in transit?’

‘Anything’s possible, but it’s unlikely,’ said Metcalfe. ‘The procedure for collection, refurbishment and delivery is extremely tight. Every rifle’s serial number is logged and traced from the moment it leaves an armoury to be taken to the factory for the upgrade, to the moment it arrives back at the armouries. The records are checked, double-checked, tripled-checked. It’d be easier smuggling the Crown Jewels out of the Tower than getting hold of one of these. If you’re looking for the source of this weapon, I’m confident it wasn’t during the refurbishment process. If I had to put money down, I’d say it went walkabout after it was delivered back to the army.’