Jules swung her feet out of bed and padded over to the windows to edge the curtain open a few inches, just enough to brighten the room so she could move around without tripping. While she was mixing and matching outfits from the pieces scattered around, she noticed a couple of significant accessories. A mobile phone and a handgun. The phone was a Nokia, one of the new models with a large colour screen and internet access. Sitting next to it on the dressing table was a SIG Sauer pistol, with three spare clips of ammunition. The shotgun that Granger had given her was gone. Fair enough, she thought. Darwin was a frontier town, entirely feral in parts, but she doubted the local wallopers would stand for her walking around with a sawn-off elephant gun.

In the bathroom also, she found evidence of unusual thoughtfulness on the part of Shah’s men. Or perhaps the beautiful Ashmi had been in their ears. The cheap no-name toiletries supplied by the motel had been replaced by body gel, shampoo and conditioner from Crabtree & Evelyn. Jules nearly swooned.

She towelled off her damp hair after a long shower, turning her mind to the practicalities of having burnt her fall-back ID, the increasingly compromised Julia Black. She had just over a thousand dollars in cash, which wouldn’t last long in Darwin. On the other hand, she had three credit cards in the name of Ms Black. Three cards she could no longer use, because they’d automatically give away her location to any interested parties. Shah would undoubtedly support her, but she’d need to be able to look after herself.

The answer, at least a temporary one, slipped under the door as she was getting dressed. A large white envelope, with her name inked on the front. Jules finished buttoning up the sky-blue linen shirt she’d thrown on over a pair of khaki shorts, before retrieving the envelope.

Inside she found two thousand dollars Australian in ‘pineapples’ – the bright yellow, plastic fifty quid notes they used down here. There was also a note from Nick Pappas and a printout of a Microsoft Where 2 map downloaded from the web. The map showed her the route to a waterfront café where she should meet Pappas in half an hour.

She fitted a holster for the pistol to the thick, soft brown leather belt Shah had supplied. The gun sat comfortably in the small of her back, covered by the long tail of the shirt. She found the placement awkward, having carried her weapons openly for the last few years. But then, for the last few years, she had mostly been travelling well beyond the edge of the civilised world.