He believed it.

The voice from the chair was softer, 'All right, Sparky. I'm sure we don't have a problem here. Let's not bend the gentleman's arm so it snaps. Who are you?'

Jonno gave his name and Posie's. He'd heard authority in the voice. He realised it was close to controlling him and that he was near to capitulating, which built his anger.

'Who are you, and this thug?'

He was not answered. Instead the man asked, 'What right have you to be in this property?'

He said his mother was a sort of niece of Frances Walsh. The villa had been offered to himself and Posie they were cat-sitting while Geoffrey Walsh had his operation in London and- He was cut off. The thug swore softly. He heard her on the stairs. The one in the sleeping bag exhaled. From the chair there was a cough. She came up steadily.

He challenged again: 'You answer that question now. Who are you, and why are you here?'

Posie was behind him. She said she had Jonno's mobile. There was a blur of movement. Jonno's arm was freed, but he was on the floor, the breath knocked out of him. The thug had Posie, who gave a muffled scream he had a hand over her mouth and the phone fell to the floor. The thug stamped on it.

The voice said, 'Before we all get over-excited, can we please relax? I want you both to look at my hand. I'm going to shine a small torch beam at it and you'll see my ID. I'm Metropolitan Police and am on duty, as are my assistant and our colleague. I apologise about the phone but you may not call from here, or shout, or use a flashlight from this room. Are we all calm?' He showed them something the size of a credit card for a few seconds.

The voice said, 'Most people find me pretty reasonable, and professional. Confrontations get in the way of my work. My advice is that you let us sort this out in the morning. I'm not here on holiday, and I'll react unfavourably to anything you do phones, lights, noise that sabotages what I came here to do. Have I your word that this will wait till the morning?'

When the thing took his hand off her mouth, Posie murmured, 'Yes.'

'And you?'

'I suppose I don't have-'

'Any option. No, not really. Go to bed.'

Jonno pushed himself up, and Posie was freed. They started down the stairs and the door closed behind them.

8.

'What to do?'

'I don't know.'

They were still in bed. The sun was already clipping the top of the mountain and a little came into the bedroom. They hadn't touched each other during the night, but neither had slept.

Jonno steeled himself and made the equation. They had come under darkness into the bungalow. They would have said if they'd had the permission of the owner to be there. His mother would have been told that he and Posie would be with a police surveillance team. What they had done was the first line of his equation. He was still angry at how they had treated him and Posie.

He knew little of policemen, had had minimal contact with them. They inhabited a different world. They were on television wearing riot gear and whacking kids protesting in central London, and they were pictured in newspapers on their hands and knees, searching ditches and verges for weapons after a girl had been strangled, or they were in cars with their blue lights going. They were in the village where he had been brought up if there had been a burglary or if the cricket pavilion's windows had been broken, and they had once been into his school to talk about the dangers of drugs. Jonno could not have said he'd ever had a meaningful conversation with a police officer. That was another line in the equation.

He was sitting up, still wearing only his boxer shorts. Posie was on her back, wrapped in a pink dressing-gown that had been on the hook behind the bedroom door. She had chucked it on when she'd followed him. His head throbbed with a hangover, and he had to blink to focus. His wrist was puffy from where he'd been held, and her elbow was scratched from her fall on the floor. Jonno almost needed to pinch himself to believe it had happened. Then he twisted towards Posie. The stress lines on her face were enough to confirm it.

What to do?

He could roll over like one of his parents' Labradors and submit. He could be reasonable, or cold and questioning. He could object angrily to an illegal entry into the home of Geoffrey and Frances Walsh. Or he could wait to be told what was going to happen.

What to do? Make the bloody tea.

He kicked off the bedclothes. He should have kissed Posie, said something nice to her; given her a comforting squeeze. He didn't. He padded out of the bedroom, across the hall. It was as if he walked through the lives of the couple who owned the place, past their possessions, the pictures that were important to them, the things they had collected over half a century. He would not have given house room to any of it. He went into the kitchen, filled the kettle, clicked it on. His mother would have thrown it out a decade before as unsafe because the flex cover was frayed. It was their kettle and their right to have it. It whistled first, then squealed, and he was at the window, looking out at the sun on the grass and the shrubs. It lit the big conifers along the boundary and played on the steepness of the slope going up to the plateau where the cave was and the plastic sacks. He had a cupboard open and was taking out the teabags and the mugs when he turned again.

The man in the doorway was the one they had called Sparky. Jonno couldn't help himself he rocked back and raised his arms as if to protect himself.

The man wore jeans, heavy trainers and a T-shirt. The tattoo on his right forearm showed outstretched wings and a filled parachute. Under it was inked Utrinque Paratus. They had not done Latin at Jonno's school so he had no idea what the motto meant. The hand below the tattoo held a see-through plastic bag with three beakers in it, a packet of dried milk and some loose teabags. The eyes fazed Jonno. Hard for him to describe. There was short-cut hair, army style, a broad, well-weathered forehead, stubble on the cheeks and chin, but the eyes drew him. There was no dislike in them, or enmity, but nothing to signal that a truce had been called. They seemed to probe him, and he couldn't read their mood. They gave him nothing.

Jonno made tea. He didn't know what to say so said nothing as he poured the water into the pot, then went to the fridge for milk. He let the pot stand and stared solidly out of the window. The man waited behind him, silent. '. . . or I'll break you,' Sparky had said. Jonno didn't doubt it. He poured the tea, which was barely ready, into two mugs and Sparky came forward to take his place by the kettle.

Jonno went out of the kitchen and his hands shook, slopping the tea, as he went back to the bedroom. They'd wait to be called.

'Good man, Sparky.'

He had brought the tea, a beaker for Snapper, Loy and himself.

Snapper had the cushion under his backside now and was comfortable, with the view of the Villa del Aguila about as good as it would get. He had seen the dog on the move in the night it had seemed to be housed round a corner and the men had been out. He'd seen the guns in the waistbands of the goons' trousers . . . and Loy had logged it all.

'Good brew, Sparky, thanks.'

A shower had started on the ground floor, with the noise of stone-age plumbing.

Sparky told him that the guy, Jonno, had been in the kitchen.

Snapper shrugged. 'We'll have our tea, then call him up, tell him the scene and have some breakfast.'

Loy asked, 'What's the position we're in, Snapper, the legal bit?'

Snapper kicked it away. They were where they were, and anything else was for the Boss to sort. It wasn't usual for Loy to query the validity of an instruction, and the young man seemed pressured maybe he had gut ache from not having eaten a proper meal or perhaps he hadn't slept. He had little love for Loy and they went their own way when not tasked together, Snapper back to his wife and kid, who didn't seem to notice when he was at home and when he wasn't, and Loy to his relationship with a legal executive in a solicitor's office. She worked all hours, and when their free time coincided they did long-distance rough-terrain cycling. Snapper thought he had trained Loy well, and the guy could carry heavy loads; he was clean and quiet.

Snapper did not expect, and would not encourage, a debate on legality. Their guidelines were governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, Part 2, which dealt with 'techniques' of surveillance and the public's safeguards from 'unnecessary invasions of their privacy'. That was big, but there was bigger in the Summary, Section 2, para (a): 'Before the observations commence a sergeant should visit the location and ascertain the attitude of the occupiers as to the disclosure of their identity, and the attitude of the public in the area and their willingness to assist the police.' He knew pretty much by heart the judgement on Regina v. Turnbull and Regina v. Johnson that covered on appeal the identity of the occupiers of private premises used as an observation post. Here, they had not observed the letter of the law; first, they were abroad and, second, they had no letter of authority from the house owner. But Snapper could flannel some said, in SCD11, that he was gold-medal standard.

He said, 'Get them up, tell them the minimum about what's going on, sweeten them with the ''public good'', then let them get on with their holiday and us with our work. I don't see a problem.'

He wanted the couple on side, and then he would get Loy to call Xavier and talk to him about their view of the 'plot' in daylight, the dog and the guns.

'You make a good cup of tea, Sparky. Not prying, but were you airborne?'

The answer was curt, not inviting conversation. 'I was 2 Para.'

'What was the speciality?'

'Sniping.'

'Bad places?'

'Some said so.'

'And you do things for the Boss.'

'Yes, and I work in St John's Gardens. Does it matter who I am, where I've been, what I do?'

'No . . . Just trying to learn who's being paid to watch my back and what his pedigree is . . . Doesn't matter. But if you've finished your tea, and the lady's decent, bring them up here, and I'll tell them all they need to know so we can settle down.'

'Can I ask?'

'What?'

'Why don't you just call Miss Winnie and give it to her to fix?'

'Too easy. Not the way it's done never the easy way. She's on the Rock. I don't contact Gibraltar because messages from here to there leave signature footprints that are traceable, which isn't our style. My contact is Xavier, calls from here to downtown Marbella, using the cut-out system. He can natter with the Boss, but the footprint from us is obliterated . . . Now, why am I not bending Xavier's ear? It may not be the army's way but we operate with spheres of responsibility. This ''plot'' is mine. I run it, it's my call. I make decisions and act on them. If I'm watching a target and feel the need, I can call in the whole works helicopter, armed cordon, storm squad, negotiator. I'm trusted enough. So, if there's a little hiccup I don't get on the phone or the radio and pass the parcel, I deal with it. You ever had responsibility, Sparky?'

Sparky said softly, 'Suppose so. When to shoot, when not to. When to kill and when . . .'

'I hear you, Sparky. Same hymn sheet. Get them up here.'

On the tough housing estates and among the terraces where the Islamist targets were, it took all of Snapper's skills to find the right location and comply with the RIPA stuff, but he didn't expect the couple to be difficult. He rehearsed in his mind what they needed to know.

Sparky stood by the door. He thought Snapper dripped charm, sincerity and reasonableness.

'You can imagine that we don't go lightly down this road. It was a huge decision to deploy us, one taken at a very high level of law enforcement, and I'm not at liberty to say what agency tasked us. It would not have been activated if it was not considered of exceptional importance in the struggle against organised crime. The occupant next door is Pavel Ivanov, who was associated with Russian crime gangs in the St Petersburg area, then decamped to southern Spain, cleaned his money and is now worth many millions of euros. At my level I don't get to see the full balance sheet. We have no argument with him. He's expecting a visitor within the next few days and we have a considerable issue with the individual coming here. You do understand, both of you, that I'm now straying into the realms of confidentiality? I'm relying on both of you to take a sensible and adult attitude to such material. I cannot tell you who is coming, nor can I be specific about the offences this individual has committed that we want him to answer for in a court of law.'

The girl sat cross-legged on the floor. Her head was down and the colour was gone from her face. He could see the graze on her elbow from when he had put her on the floorboards. He had collected the pieces of the mobile phone he had destroyed, bagged them and given it to her. Her eyes were on Snapper's footwear. There was a bed in the room, and Loy sat on it. He took his cues from Snapper and nodded when a point was emphasised. The boyfriend, Jonno, was on the move, sometimes at the bottom of the bed, sometimes by the dormer that looked out on to the back and the cliff.

'So, why are we here? You have the right to know and, as utterly respectable people, your integrity should not be doubted. It is not. Again, I'm putting faith in you and being frank. There is widespread corruption in this country throughout society, which includes the judiciary and the police. I would assume that every high-rate target in Marbella, who is at liberty, owns a police officer in the Organised Crime Squad. I'm not plucking that out of the air. It happens too often. We're not prepared to jeopardise our investigation by allowing a bent cop to wreck it. That's why, at this stage, we're operating independently.'

Sparky watched Jonno, could see only part of his face but enough to read him.

'We'll identify the principal target when he comes here but the time is uncertain, as his method of entry into Spanish territory. We'll see him, activate our communications, and our people will then demand a fast and immediate response from the local authorities. He goes into custody, and we start the business of extradition. At this stage, a few of the rules might have been bent, not much. When the handcuffs go on, everything will be ultra-legal, shipshape, above board . . . and a very dangerous man will be on his way to an airport, a flight into the UK and a prison sentence. You see, Jonno, it's nothing for you to get agitated about.'

Where he stood, Sparky could see the tautness of the young man's shoulders. He readied himself, rolled fractionally on the balls of his feet.

'I really am sorry, Jonno and Posie for the way it turned out last night. It would have been very frightening for you both. We heard you come in and hoped you'd just settle down for the rest of the night, but we couldn't have lights and telephone calls. Right. That's where I'm at, and I hope what I've been able to tell you they'd skin me for being so upfront is satisfactory.'

He'd turned to watch the property through the dormer.

Jonno said, 'Bullshit.'

If the young man had taken a step forward Sparky would likely have hit him on the back of the neck, at the side, where the shoulder joined the trunk.

'I beg your pardon?'

'You don't get it.' There was an edge in the young man's voice, and a tremor. 'You haven't mentioned what is, to me, the only important factor.'

Snapper's response was silky. 'What haven't I mentioned?'

Caro Watson saw him clearly.

When the executive jet had landed it had been far out from the terminal and two cars had met the aircraft on a distant apron. She had seen, through the binoculars Barry had passed her, the Tango come down the retractable steps, then the two minders who had travelled with him. It would have been the co-pilot who brought out two light bags and a holdall. She had, almost, felt panic rising, had begun to think, All this bloody way for bugger-all, and he had come down the steps. They had known where the plane would come, but not when, had staked out the place, covered each arrival, and had begun to fret and then it had come into view, made one circuit and landed. She might not have identified him, but David had said crisply, 'That's him he's changed his shirt from Constanta.'

That was Nouakchott International. They were inland from a Saharan city; the ground was flat and sandy. The view was cut by a low heat haze, and they were in the terminal building because there was nowhere else to be. The traffic around them was typical, she supposed, of any backwater in west Africa. There were smart business suits, tribal colours, attache cases, laptop holders and raffia bags, a smell nothing in London replicated.

Jimmy was the Six man in Dakar, to the south, and he'd flown up the night before to meet her. He would organise transport and hadn't stopped bitching that he would miss his daughter in the International School play. They had scooted. They had a Nissan off-road job, with privacy windows. Jimmy had sat beside his driver and had moved on to his workload. He was based in Dakar, Senegal, but his bailiwick was Nouakchott, Mauretania, to the north, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Ivory Coast to the south, and Upper Volta to the west, and Barry had done the job for her. 'Sorry, man, your workload's a low priority to us. Can we turn the tap on it?' They'd followed the cars that had done the aircraft pick-up. The driver was good didn't need to be told when to hang back and when to close up. They'd left the airport, having hung around there for more than twelve hours, 'waiting for a plane from Mali', feeling conspicuous until the target's wings had slid out of the mist.

They had turned on to Avenue Gamel Abdel Nasser in the heart of the city. The target cars had pulled up in the forecourt of a hotel. She saw him climb out of the back door of the second vehicle. A different shirt, but the same jeans, and his bag was hooked on his shoulder. She saw all of his face as she peered between the driver's and Jimmy's heads. The boy, Natan, looked bowed, as if he was carrying a heavy weight.

The forecourt and its parking area were full but spaces had been reserved for the latest arrival. Nearest the door was the black Citroen limousine with the national flag on the bonnet, and behind were two motorcycle escorts, police. That made sense to Caro: she had seen the target, who was impressive and had stature: a meeting with a minister would have been scheduled. They would haggle over terms, then agree the transit of 'goods'. Since she had returned from Constanta, she had gone to the Archive and had learned of the importance of the west African ports to the cocaine trade out of Latin America and into Europe. She knew that Dakar and Abidjan, in Ivory Coast, and Nigeria's capital Lagos were policed by the Drug Enforcement Administration and that American bucks hit trading. The soft landing would be Nouakchott, which was safer and cheaper.

The driver opened the door for her. She stepped out, Barry behind her. David would stay in the car with the Six man.

The doors swung for her. A Branch people, surveillance, complained that they dressed in the morning, not knowing whether the target would start off in a decayed estate, where the clothing had to fit, and end up in a Holiday Inn or an Intercontinental where, again, the clothes must work. Of course, she would be seen, but she would not be noticed: dark grey skirt, flat black shoes, light grey blouse, no makeup, hair pulled behind her head, a canvas bag and a dog-eared Paris Match.

They were settling in low chairs around a table that backed on to the glass windows that overlooked the pool. Past them she could see leggy girls in bikinis. The target's eyes drifted their way, and then his attention was on the man across the table from him. The waiter brought tiny coffee cups and glasses of juice. One of the minders was at the target's side, the other next to Natan.

She thought the boy seemed irresolute.

She had taken a lounge chair in the middle of the lobby, where Natan could see her. He must lead and she would follow. The air-conditioning played on her. To Caro's right was the hotel shop; to her left the toilets, a door going out into the gardens and the lifts.

There were two goons with the minister, and two minders with the man who liked to be called the Major. Natan fidgeted and their eyes caught. He looked away.

Five minutes passed.

Barry wandered away to pick up a hotel brochure but kept her in view. Every few seconds she eased her head a little higher to see above the magazine. He had to respond, had to move but did not. After five more minutes she had done half the pages. The hotel was an oasis, corporate Europe on the edge of the great desert. More western faces appeared through the doors and headed for check-in.

He moved.

About damn time. He went towards the hotel shop: she was about to push herself up and do a relaxed stroll towards him when she saw that the shorter minder, Ruslan, had moved away, left Grigoriy at the Major's back. Round the table they were hard in discussion and the kid must have thought the chance beckoned, but he was followed. The boy saw him and hesitated, then looked at her. She saw persecution in his face. She held the contact. In doing so she might have pushed back the boundaries of due care. Her obligation to him was nil. She had no call on him other than to extract a time for the crossing into Spain from Morocco, and a chosen method of transport there. Natan went into the shop, and the minder followed.

They had said on the courses at Lippitts Hill that an officer handling an agent should not rush him but should allow the contact point to stay sanitised and safe. When Natan came out of the shop he gazed at her. He was holding a packet of chewing gum. Ruslan had come out with nothing.

She settled in her chair as he drifted back to the meeting.

The Major broke from his calculations.

Behind him he heard the murmuring of his warrant officer and his master sergeant. He was distracted and looked up at them, away from the man of influence with whom he was bartering. He made a gesture to his host, excused himself, then leaned back as the warrant officer bent to speak in his ear.

There was a European woman in the centre of the lobby area, with a magazine good legs, dark skirt, fair skin. She was watching them. The Major did not turn: he was skilled in counter-surveillance.

'She was watching Gecko and looked like she was going to follow him.'

'But she didn't?'

'She saw Ruslan.'

The Major made a gesture of apology to his host, and the talk resumed. More coffee and juice were brought, and they picked at some grilled lamb. They talked of the weight of shipments that could be brought into the docks or the Nouakchott wharf, the prices levied for the cargo, what security guaranteed and at what cost. Arrangements were put in place for the start of the cargo's land journey north. He did not look again at the Gecko, but was confident his minders would.