‘Are you still up for it?’ asked Dale, looking concerned.

Bailey nodded. ‘I’ll just have to think of a good cover story.’

Her mind was already humming with potential options. It was the responsibility of the undercover police officer to think up their own cover story and she always relished the opportunity to put her imagination to use in this way.

‘I think my best bet is to pose as a mid-level player looking to move up the food chain,’ she said. ‘I’ll need an apartment, a car and the appropriate credentials.’

The kind of street player she was aiming to emulate always had a number of schemes running at any given time. Stolen vehicles, fur coats, gold bullion. Potential burglaries. Drugs. Weapons. Buying and selling. Wheeling and dealing. She knew the type well.

‘You just have to think of a good reason why you’d need to acquire so many guns,’ said Frank.

Bailey let her mind work on it for a few moments.

‘How about guns for right-wing contacts?’ she said. ‘There are plenty of fringe groups that have sprung up in recent years, what with the global shift to the right.’

Frank and Dale looked at each other and nodded in approval.

Bailey knew that with a little bit of research she could be vague enough to spin it into something plausible.

‘With a transaction of this importance,’ said Dale, ‘it’s likely that you’ll be dealing directly with Rick himself at all stages of the process. Like I said, he’s paranoid about police surveillance, so he generally prefers to meet up face-to-face when he wants to communicate anything important.

‘Those ecstasy pills I mentioned are pretty run-of-the-mill, and the Molloys will probably just send some lower-level subordinates to pick up the drugs, and those are the people the Essex police will end up arresting. But these guns are something else and we reckon they give us the opportunity to capture Rick himself. It’s all too easy for us to arrest the minor players. But to make a real impact, we need to catch the guys at the top, guys like Rick. He’s been operating with virtual impunity for so long, but hopefully we’ll get him this time. With your help.’

‘So who’s running this operation?’ said Bailey.

‘With a large quantity of guns like this, the National Crime Agency would normally be the ones to run such an operation,’ Frank explained. ‘However, due to the particular circumstances and sensitive nature of this infiltration, I’ve convinced them to let us run it as a Metropolitan Police operation. However, I’ll be feeding back directly to them, and the NCA will be instrumental in the final bust. Having laid much of the groundwork already, in terms of his work with Adrian, Dale will be part and parcel of this operation, and you and he will be working together very closely throughout the course of the whole thing.’

She shot Dale a thin smile. He smiled back and she felt a little twist of butterflies in her stomach.