‘Go on, sir,’ said Bose.

‘Well, the whole bloody point of remodelling the rifle was to improve its reliability. You’ll recall that the first model, the A1, used in the Gulf, had significant flaws. They were ironed out in the first major upgrade to the A2. The latest upgrade to the A3 has raised the game even further. Since it was phased in, they’ve not needed anything like the same level of aftercare. Orders for spare parts are down in every armoury in the country. Except one, I should say. The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers armoury attached to Hedingly Barracks in Hampshire has seen a fairly hefty hike in orders for SA80 spare parts over the last two years. It’s possible – and it’s only a theory – that these spare parts being ordered by the armoury at Hedingly were not for repairing faulty rifles at all but were being used to create new ones. It’s theoretically possible that someone could order enough spare bolts, firing pins, barrels, stocks, grips and so forth – to produce rifles virtually from scratch.

‘It sounds fanciful, I know, and of course you couldn’t create an entire rifle that way, but you could go a long way, particularly if you were an armourer holding on to useful parts from older models supposedly intended to be decommissioned…

‘Another thing. I showed the pictures to our guys at the factory and your weapon analysis was nearly right. But this isn’t quite an SA80 A3. It’s a hybrid. Some parts are from the newest A3 modifications, but others are from the earlier A2. It’s been cobbled together, which fits the theory that it’s being done by someone with access to parts.’

‘If someone in the armoury was creating SA80s from spares and selling them on the black market, how come no one’s noticed?’ said Bose.

Metcalfe hesitated. ‘To be honest, Sergeant, bits and pieces have gone missing from armouries since the dawn of time. You know the sort of thing – rounds that are signed out and never accounted for. A high-ranking NCO would have no problem getting them off base. And the army’s always overstocked. It’s engrained in the military mind. The fear isn’t running out of storage space, it’s running out of stores. Inventory control has been terrible for years. It’s perfectly plausible that a certain number of weapons are being assembled and smuggled out.’

‘You say weapons? Based on the excess parts orders, how many military-grade rifles could we be talking about?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Metcalfe. ‘Certainly no more than twenty or thirty from this source in the last couple of years.’

‘Thirty?’ Bose was incredulous. ‘Are you telling me that it’s possible thirty high-performance assault weapons have gone walkabouts from Hedingly and no one has even noticed?’

‘As I say, inventory has been a bit of a problem in recent years. But yes, it’s possible.’

#

Stoke Newington, North London

Gabriel was brushing her teeth when the phone rang. She cursed, spat out the toothpaste and dabbed her mouth with a flannel.