Again, Thomas said nothing. This was not the time to get angry. He leant back in the sofa and watched his old friend through narrowed eyes.

The PM continued. ‘But my worry is perception – it might look to some that you are jockeying, which I know you are not. And this Freedom Bill… Again, some might even see it as the sort of illiberal measure that plays into the hands of extremists and fuels the kind of mindless violence we are seeing so much of out there. So a friendly warning, Ben. Be careful.’

Thomas resisted the urge to snap back at his old friend. It felt like he was being dismissed, so he stood, walked to the door, then half-turned.

‘Thank you, Prime Minister,’ he said. ‘Please be reassured that while we may disagree from time to time, you have my complete support.’ And he left.

#

New Scotland Yard, Victoria Embankment, London

Tennant was on the phone when Gabriel walked over. He had a coffee stain down his pale blue tie which looked fresh. Gabriel tried not to look at it. She shifted a pile of newspapers from the spare chair to the floor and sat.

Tennant ended the call. ‘Mayor’s office,’ he said to Gabriel, cautiously, eyeing her carefully to judge her mood. ‘Wants to know if we should be worried about next weekend’s sports fixtures – we’ve got an England international, a charity half-marathon and the Calcutta Cup on Sunday.’

Gabriel looked blank.

‘Calcutta Cup? Six Nations… England and Scotland… Rugby?’ He gave her a mock-withering look, then checked himself when she responded blankly. There was an awkward pause.

‘Look, I trust your judgement implicitly, Sophie,’ he said eventually. ‘But I need you focused on the NRF. I get that you’re bothered by Abu Mujahid.’ Tennant studied her expressionless face. ‘Remember it’s not personal, Sophie,’ he said carefully.

‘Yeah, but it kind of is, isn’t it?’

There was another moment’s silence before Tennant spoke. ‘What have you got?’

‘Rod Houghton.’ Gabriel’s tone was formal, businesslike. ‘He used a phone in an internet cafe a couple of hours ago. We’ve talked to the cafe’s internet provider, and we’ve got the metadata from his phone. He sent two messages via WhatsApp, so we’ve got the number of his contact too.

‘He’s been smart, as you’d expect given his special ops background, and he’s using a burner phone. But whoever he’s been contacting has been less clever. He, or she, kept their phone on for two hours earlier today.’

‘Where are they?’

‘Leeds. We’ve had teams up there trying to pin them down but with no success yet. They’ve stayed in busy areas – shopping streets and the Trinity shopping centre mostly. We’re also going through their movements over the last nine months looking for patterns.’

‘A potential lead into the NRF then.’

‘Think it’s more than that,’ said Gabriel. ‘Houghton has been ultra-careful with this contact. He messaged them only using public Wi-Fi hotspots, he kept his phone on for seconds at a time only. And the frequency of texts has shot up in the last thirty-six hours.’