Gabriel continued: ‘I thought they were more into organised crime than anything else.’

‘That was our view until the last couple of months,’ said Isaacs. ‘But some interesting names have become associated with them – individuals who played a major role in ISIS – and we’re starting to take them more seriously. One of them is Mohammed Huzaifa.’

Gabriel put down her glass of water too hard and a splash hit the tablecloth. ‘Nasty piece of work.’

‘Yep. He was involved in the Druze massacre, alongside Abu Mujahid. He’s now running the GID and has been for the best part of six months. And since he took over, the organisation has been busy. Since December, we’ve been concerned that they were moving weapons out of Syria into neighbouring countries. A kind of logistics service for jihadists in need of an anti-tank missile or an additional few thousand rounds, that kind of thing. We’ve been regularly keeping an eye on their shipments, but nothing substantial has come up. Until this. It’s got Mohammed Huzaifa written all over it.’

She pushed a folder across the table.

‘We’re going to pass this to MI5, but no harm you seeing it first.’

Gabriel put her fingers on the buff folder. The intel would be going into Thames House shortly and would be landing in her lap following further analysis from MI5, but Isaacs was doing her a big favour by giving her an early look.

‘We’ve identified two shipments which we believe originated from GID,’ said Isaacs as Gabriel leafed through the folder. ‘Both are linked to the same commercial shipping office in Beirut and all went via Greece – one to Canada, one to the UK.’

Each shipment was dated alongside a list of contents. Gabriel’s eyes widened as she read.

‘You certain?’ she said.

Isaacs nodded. ‘Source is good,’ she said.

Gabriel read again. Explosives, assault rifles, ammo. What alarmed her was not the quantity but the quality. AK-74s, Uzi submachine guns, and M4 Carbines.

‘When did this ship?’ said Gabriel.

‘Around six weeks ago, Sophie. It would have arrived in the UK within the last two weeks.’

This cannot be a coincidence, Gabriel told herself as she walked back to the office. Two weeks ago, a terrorist arms shipment – of the like not seen since the peak of the IRA decades ago – arrives in the UK, sent from a terror group with links to Abu Mujahid. And within days, a man resembling Abu Mujahid smuggles himself into the country.

She pulled out her phone to call Tennant, then stopped and returned the mobile to her pocket. No reason to tell the boss yet, particularly when he was being such an arse.

#

CTOC, St Pancras, London

Bose took the call at her desk.

‘Tony Metcalfe from DE&S.’ The accent was even posher on the phone. ‘I’ve pulled the records for the SA80 refurbishment as requested and there’s nothing untoward on paper. But there is one thing that came out in conversation with colleagues at Bristol…’