He spoke softly, with a non-native precision.

“Things have been far from ideal, and we apologize for that. Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”

“I need my security to be present.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

Lau spoke with the guards alone. He returned and nodded acceptance, leading them into a dining room with a table set with candelabras. Lau shut the double doors behind them and they sat down on cushioned chairs.

“Something has gone wrong at our end,” Taylor began. “We don’t deny that, and we want to apologize. The records that should be there are no longer there. On our side, there’s an inquiry under way. But obviously a lot of people are scratching their heads—whatever you were involved in was such high secrecy that even senior members of the service have not been fully briefed. That’s why we’re here: We need to know exactly what happened before we can begin arranging appropriate protection and compensation. Ultimately we need to know where the threat lies and how we can keep you and your family safe.”

“We need to know everything,” Kudus said.

“How much do you know already?”

“Imagine we know nothing.”

Lau exhaled, ran a hand through his hair, then stared at Taylor.

“Are you aware of the cemetery?”

“Which cemetery?”

“In the Pacific.”

Taylor and Kudus glanced at each other.

“No,” Kudus said, finally. “Tell us about the cemetery in the Pacific.”

Lau gathered himself, gazing toward the shutters before turning his bright eyes upon them.

“May 2016, I was searching for a Second World War ship, the SS Mi­nerva, in the South China Sea, the Lingayen Gulf, to be precise. I had spent years compiling a database, tracking the gold shipped by the British government to pay for weapons and goods during the World Wars. There were around seven and a half thousand merchant ships sunk, and my team have identified more than five hundred that were carrying vast quantities of precious metals. Twenty are in the South China Sea.

“The Minerva had been carrying platinum, gold, and industrial diamonds when it was torpedoed in July 1942. That’s all still down there. But if it was easy to access it would have been salvaged by now. Our mission to find it was the conclusion of two years’ preparation. We’d been sailing for almost a week. On the sixth morning, just before dawn, my crew saw what looked like three fishing boats approaching, but moving way too fast. They got closer and we could see they were more like military craft: very low, ten men per boat, all masked up. And heavily armed. We knew they were either special forces or very well equipped pirates. We were outnumbered. They boarded, all speaking Chinese. Claimed we were in Chinese territorial waters, which we weren’t. We were arrested, blindfolded, taken onto their boats. Next thing I know, I’m being interviewed in a secure facility.