“Saving the world again.”

“The job of all great men,” Dillon said. “Now, tell me how you see this gig going,” he asked Roper.

“Well, at some stage I imagine it would involve you or Billy kicking the door of that villa open, gun in hand.”

“Very funny, Roper.”

At that moment, Roper’s Codex Four, his secure mobile phone, rang, and he could see it was Harry Salter.

“Harry! What’s up?” he asked.

“Is everyone there?”

“Not for long.”

“Put me on speakerphone and I’ll tell you what’s up.” He waited a moment. “Remember George Moon and his thug Big Harold?”

“Personally, I’ll never forget them,” Roper said.

“Listen and learn, children.” Harry’s voice floated out of the phone. By the time he had finished, everybody was up to date on the events at the Harvest Moon.

At the end, Billy groaned. “Ruby? Ruby Moon at the Dark Man?”

“She’s safely tucked up in bed right now. It could be a lot worse, Billy. It’ll make a man of you, old boy, isn’t that what they say?”

“Not at the school I went to.”

“And it was one of the finest public schools in London, too. I wanted to make a gent of him, teach him how to behave. Look how it turned out.”

“Yes, you’ve created a gentleman gangster. A highwayman!” Roper laughed. “It certainly suits Billy.”

“All right, let’s have you home, Billy. I smell things happening over there. Make an old man happy and tell me all about it.”

“I’ll see you in twenty minutes,” Billy said and clicked off. He turned to Roper and Dillon. “So, what’s the deal?”

“We’ll keep Ferguson out of it entirely,” said Roper. “I’ll arrange false papers-I think you’ll play war correspondents again. I’ll book a flight from Farley Field. Dillon takes the rap for telling Lacey and Parry it’s an unexpected flight, highly secret and so on. The weapons will be supplied by the quartermaster at Farley. I know a firm called Recovery that’ll help us in Baghdad. It’ll just take a call to make sure. I can let you know tomorrow. Off you go.”