Cyril Dupont

Who they are

The third of the men off the ferry, and the least explained of the three: a contractor who speaks French with an American slant, is dressed like a soldier, was flagged on Annex C at Southampton’s ferry terminal, and is given two chapters in which to talk before he dies.

He is the crew’s talker. In C07 he jokes about the woman they may have to kill; by C12, facing JK Coe at the barn, he is talking about pay, mortgages and the absence of a prospectus, admitting he is not claiming to be blameless and saying the boy was just a job. He is also the crew’s casualty before he is its corpse: Louisa Guy’s monkey wrench catches him at the crossroads on the first night, and C09 and C10 leave him concussed in the barn while the others are sent out.

He dies at the barn. C12 ends with Coe’s hand dropping to his blade; C13 finds Cyril in front of the doors with his throat cut and Coe dead against a tree, a knife on the ground beside him. The fight itself is not staged. Lars drags both bodies inside and burns the barn over them.

What they want

To be paid and to finish. He offers no cause, claims no innocence, and treats the question of what the boy had done as beside the point. The one distinction he insists on is professional: “I’m a mercenary. Not a pirate.”

Book 6 — Joe Country

• C07 — In the barn for Harkness’s briefing, joking about the woman from Slough House they may have to kill.
• C09 — Concussed by Louisa’s wrench at the crossroads and left behind in the barn when the others are sent out after the boy.
• C10 — Still at the barn with concussion, told to get up.
• C12 — Meets Coe at the barn, is placed from the ferry-terminal watchlist, talks about pay and mortgages, says he had no prospectus and is not claiming to be blameless, and agrees they should get on with it. Coe reaches for his blade.
• C13 — Found dead outside the barn doors, throat cut; Coe is dead against a tree, and the two bodies are dragged inside before the barn burns.

Tells

The distinction between mercenary and pirate, which he makes as though it were a qualification. Apology before violence, like the rest of the crew. A man doing sums out loud — mortgages, pay, no prospectus — and sounding genuinely sorry when the talking stops.

Open questions

Who struck first at the barn, and what Cyril knew about the boy before he was sent after him. The fight is off the page, and the book does not say.