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seen.
    ‘That looks like an original 1940s Luger to me, Mr Cooper,’ Heck said. ‘Another spoil of war?’
    ‘Inside!’ Cooper indicated the yawning doorway behind them.
    Heck held his ground, fingers flexing. He glanced around. There wasn’t a building overlooking them. The only high points in sight were the towering hulks of disused cranes. Directly overhead, the sun had gone in, tumbleweeds of cloud scudding through a colourless sky.
    Cooper pointed the Luger directly at Heck’s face. ‘I said move.’
    Heck turned, hands raised. Farthing did the same, half-stumbling, the eyes bulging in his sweaty, froglike face.
    ‘I’m guessing you haven’t tried to fire that before?’ Heck said over his shoulder.
    ‘It’s fully loaded, I assure you,’ Cooper replied.
    ‘Yeah, but what do you think’ll happen if you fire it now … for the first time in seventy years?’
    ‘Keep walking,’ Cooper instructed.
    Farthing whimpered as the dark entrance loomed in front of them. Heck glanced sideways; tears had appeared on the chubby cop’s milk-pale cheeks.
    ‘You still need a way out of this, Mr Cooper,’ Heck said. ‘Shoot us now, and what happens next?’
    ‘That hardly matters to you .’
    ‘But what about you? Won’t be much chance of getting the rest of Crabtree’s gang if you’re sitting in jail. It might be the other way around. Crabtree’s lot will have friends on the inside …’ Bricks and other rubble clattered under their feet as they stumbled into the mildew-scented interior.
    ‘If I feared retaliation, I’d never have embarked on this course,’ Cooper said.
    ‘And what course was that?’ Heck wondered. ‘Bumping off some Nazis? Carrying on your father’s good work?’
    ‘Father was the finest of the fine. During this nation’s darkest hour, fighting men like him shone.’
    ‘Pity he didn’t restrict himself to the fighting, eh? Pity he became a war criminal.’
    ‘It’s no crime to execute those responsible for heinous deeds.’ Cooper’s voice had imperceptibly tautened. ‘Father was always an honest man. He believed in justice and a firm response to wickedness. Along there … all the way to the end.’
    They now faced the meshwork corridor with its hanging cables and rags of lagging. The open spaces beyond it were hidden in funereal gloom.
    Farthing all but sobbed aloud.
    ‘And what wickedness were Nathan Crabtree and his cronies committing?’ Heck asked, starting forward, eyes darting right and left.
    ‘The mere fact you have to ask that condemns you … but their main fault is simply being who they are.’
    ‘You don’t share their views? I’m surprised.’
    ‘Which again shows how little you know, sergeant. Animals like that … they call themselves British. And yet they terrorise the weak, punish the innocent. They call themselves patriots … even though they defame our flag, besmirch our name …’
    ‘So how’d you do it?’ Heck asked. ‘Lure them to their doom. I’m guessing they didn’t know they had a runner on their hands?’
    ‘ What are you doing?’ Farthing blurted, suddenly jerking out of his tearful reverie. ‘We don’t want to know , okay Mr Cooper? We don’t want to know anything.’
    Cooper appeared not to have heard the outburst. ‘I propositioned the two henchmen. Made sexual remarks to them. One while he was using a public lavatory. The other while he was crossing a public park.’
    ‘As easy as that, eh?’ Heck said.
    ‘Dumb animals follow their instincts. As for Crabtree, I presented him with certain photographs I’d discovered on the internet. Offered them for sale to him in a pub . I knew he would pursue me for as long as was necessary.’
    ‘And in each case, when you got to the pre-prepared spot, you just turned around and pulled your Luger?’
    ‘The brutes are so easy. They were even easier to render unconscious. If your forensics people were ever to examine my khukuri, they’d find as many blood flecks lodged in its lion