‘I have a small office in Seattle, yes,’ he said. ‘We have contracts to provide security for some of the reclamation crews working the West Coast cities. We do recruit in the US, mostly ex-military people, especially if they are familiar with the territory in which we are operating. But as far as possible, I try to use men from the regiment. The income they remit home is important, as I said.’

‘And in Fort Hood?’

Shah gestured as though he was swatting away a fly. ‘A two-man operation. Or rather, one man and his wife, working as his secretary. I have no other personnel permanently stationed in Texas. The administration there controls access and movement very closely. Blackstone’s people are very businesslike, very easy to make a deal with in many ways. But the men I send there fly in, do the job, and fly out again. Fort Hood is open for business, but not always . . . welcoming. Perhaps if I hired more men from the local military population . . .’

‘Whitey, you mean?’

He nodded slowly. ‘So you noticed.’

‘The Rhino and I were down there for a few weeks after New York. It was like taking a little holiday in GI Joe World at Disneyland in, like, 1953.’

‘Mr Ross was with you, when you were attacked by Cesky’s men in Texas?’

Julianne’s eyes crinkled with delight. ‘God, I so rarely hear the Rhino referred to by his real name. I doubt his parents even used it.’

She noticed then that her hands were shaking – delayed shock, she assumed. Well, it wasn’t the first time something had blown up in her face.

‘Do you mind?’ she said, standing up and heading to the window. ‘I need to move around. Bit of nervous tension to burn off. And I’m very worried about him.’

‘Of course. His injuries were severe.’

She remembered this about Mr Shah. He didn’t sugar-coat things.

She paced the room for a few seconds before leaning up against the window that had been cut into the side of the insulated shipping container. Shah’s office looked down over the concrete slab where they had left the car, and afforded him a view into two of the large sheds in which some of his heavier vehicles were undergoing maintenance. The glass was cool to the touch thanks to the air-conditioning, but she could feel the fierce Darwin heat beating against it on the outside. She was up high enough to see over the rooftops of buildings in the surrounding streets. A heat haze shimmered over all of the corrugated-iron and aluminium sheeting. There was very little greenery in this older, industrial subdivision.