‘He got blown right off the boat that exploded,’ she said, as the paramedics moved swiftly to take over, thanking the civilians who’d pulled him out, but letting them know their work was done.

Shah was soaked with both oil and water. He used a shirt sleeve to mop his face clean before positioning himself just behind the ambulance men, to help keep the dock clear. ‘Back, back,’ he ordered in a parade-ground voice, pushing the small crowd that had re-formed away from the stretcher. More stretcher-bearers ran by, heading towards the weeping man who still clung onto that headless corpse. Two Sandline troopers fought through the crush and began using batons to push the onlookers back towards dry land.

‘Miss Jules,’ croaked the Rhino. ‘This is a pleasant surprise.’

‘I’m so sorry, Rhino,’ she said. ‘I should have stayed this morning until I’d warned you. But . . .’

He reached out one trembling hand to still her as the paramedics settled him onto the stretcher.

‘S’okay. A coupla scratches. Horn’s still attached. I’ll live.’

‘Move!’ shouted Dwyer before taking a grip on the stretcher handles and nodding to his colleague. ‘One, two, three – lift.’

They hoisted their giant patient with audible grunts. Shah moved quickly to take some of the weight himself and Jules took an awkward grip on the opposite side.

‘Cesky?’ asked the Rhino, looking into Jules’s eyes.

‘Who else?’ she answered. But he had already passed out.

*

She thought he’d be taken to Royal Darwin Hospital, which had developed an unenviable expertise in trauma surgery over the last few years. Hundreds of victims of the Bali Bombing in October ’02 had been treated there, and later tens of thousands of evacuees from the fighting in Indonesia had fled to the city, many of them needing emergency care. The Rhino would have been well looked after up at Royal Darwin. Instead he was loaded onto one of the US Navy helicopters and lifted away.

‘They’ll take him out to the Bataan,’ Dwyer told her. ‘Got a great trauma centre on board. He’ll be fine. We send cases to the Yanks all the time.’

‘He is a Yank,’ she said, feeling useless.

‘There you go, then. He’ll be right at home.’

But it wasn’t his treatment she was worried about. Both Jules and the Rhino had reason for putting thousands of miles between themselves and the US after getting out of New York. She watched the chopper haul itself into the sky and turn south, heading for the Combined Fleet anchorage. She assumed the ship’s doctors had also gained a lot of unwanted experience at treating burns and blast injuries over the last few years. But the Rhino wouldn’t want to linger in the sick bay.

‘Miss Julianne.’

She was surprised to find Shah beside her again. He had a knack for appearing and disappearing at will.