‘I know what I said.’ He cuts her off with a volley of knuckle cracking. ‘I let it roll. We let it roll. I know what I’m doing, and it worked. We’re here, aren’t we?’

I fill the car with roaring traffic as I edge down the window. No one’s even mentioned the girl, the third shadow, flickering like a ghost in the corridor. Did I at least get a shot of her? Will one jerky frame even be enough? I don’t ask though, since they don’t seem to care. And then I might have to admit to myself it’s the only shot I can remember.

‘We’ll have to make sure no top brass hear those bits then, won’t we?’ Jemima says, low under the thudding motorway. ‘Of course, that’s only if you got it all…’

‘Are you alright, Marie?’ I jump as Dominic prods me. ‘You’ve gone green…’

‘Sorry,’ I say, flinching as Bill swerves. ‘Don’t worry, I never throw up. I just get a bit woozy…’ I lean my cheek against the cool glass, cars scudding past in a blur. I wish I’d thought of pretending to be car sick before.

‘Take it easy,’ Dominic says, resting a hand on my shoulder. ‘You 13did really well in there. Plenty of people, senior producers included, would have pissed themselves before we’d even got through the door.’

I let my head loll like I’m tired. And then I see it. The flicker of movement that’s out of place. The purposeful glance of the passenger in the grey VW speeding alongside us.

Staying level with us in the nearside lane just a beat too long. Just enough to check he’s got the right van.

‘Bill,’ I murmur, searching for his eyes in the mirror. ‘Do you see that VW on the right?’

‘Huh?’ Jemima looks up from fiddling with her laptop.

‘Stash it,’ I say, looking straight ahead as if I haven’t noticed a thing. ‘The laptop. Quick. And duck, if you can. That car … something’s not right.’

I grip the seat as my adrenaline starts to run again. Of course they’re following us. We knew they were pros. We wouldn’t have bothered otherwise, would we? Dominic goes rigid next to me.

‘There’s something in it,’ Bill says in a low voice. ‘I’m pretty sure they’ve been tailing us since we got on the motorway. I’m not certain, but I think there could be two of them. There’s another van’s been sticking behind us since this one pulled out.’

‘Shit,’ Jemima says, crouching in the footwell. ‘Why didn’t we anticipate this?’ I can almost hear her brain working as I stare into the mirror, frown lines deepening on Bill’s forehead. The two cars tighten round us like a cell.