The lawyer smirked. ‘I had been thinking of asking for a nice bottle of Sancerre, as I know Mrs Shah is partial to a drop. But I feel I’ve been rather snookered now. So a Bintang it is. Ms Balwyn?’

‘I’d love a beer.’

Shah brought out four small brown bottles and opened them on the massive slab atop the steel structure, in the middle of the cellar space. Turned out this bench was not a solid chunk of metal, after all. He’d had storage and more refrigeration built into the far side. Possibly more weapons lockers too, if Julianne knew him well.

‘My apologies for all that up there,’ Shah said to her. ‘I had originally intended that we might host you to a small family dinner tonight. But after discussing the matter with Nick and Mr Downing, we thought it better to hide in plain sight.’

She wasn’t sure she followed him. The confusion must’ve shown.

‘The best place to hide a pebble is in a quarry,’ explained Shah. ‘These small parties are quite common among the exiled people here. For those who can afford them, anyway. I do not feel it myself, but many of those upstairs very much feel themselves to be in Darwin under sufferance. They worry that their sanctuary may be denied them on the whim of a politician in the south. The free-port status has brought great wealth to this country in a time when so much wealth has been destroyed. But, of course, it has brought a tide of people with it. Many of them, not the sort of people who would have easily gained entry to Australia in the past.’

Jules took a long pull from her beer, appreciating the cold bite and the lack of fizz. She’d always rated Bintang as a great hot-weather beer, especially in humid climes.

‘The boat people, the real boat people, you mean,’ she said. ‘The poor ones.’

‘Yes. Certainly not the Americans or displaced English folk like Mr Downing here. They have always been welcome. But peasants and coolies arriving in hordes, not as much.’

‘Well, I hardly think that describes many of your guests upstairs. If they’re refugees, they look like they flew here first-class hauling baggage trains of money behind them.’

Nick Pappas stepped in at that point. ‘They did, Julianne.’

‘As did I,’ Shah conceded. ‘The business migration scheme which allowed me to come here with my family was very generous. It gets even more generous, depending on the amount of business you bring with you.’

‘Fascinating,’ said Jules. ‘But why is it relevant, Shah?’