Mia’s own theory was robbery. Big mining conglomerates were shaving whole mountain tops off in Papua, dumping hundreds of thousands of tonnes of spoil into the rivers, shipping out millions of dollars in precious metals.

Scratching his bristly chin, Douglas frowned as he listened.

‘I just don’t know, but it’s obviously a front. The money was too good to be true.’ He stared at her with haunted eyes. ‘Shit, isn’t it always? Oh fuck, what have I done?’

Mia thought quickly. ‘What about Kaboro?’

‘You think he’s in on it, too?’ Douglas was aghast.

‘No, I think he’s stumbling around in the dark like we are, but if he won’t act and put them under arrest, then I don’t think we’re safe, not so long as we stay on this boat.’

Douglas anxiously rubbed his face with both hands.

‘There’s no easy way out of here, Mia. We can’t just go wandering through the bush, not after what happened to that canoe.’ Pensively, he sucked air between his teeth. ‘Look, their hands might be tied, but Kaboro and Singkepe are firmly in our camp. Once we refloat the ship tomorrow, we’ll head to the nearest town with an airstrip and a radio and get off there.’

‘And if we don’t refloat the ship?’ Mia stared at him.

‘Then I’ll take that fucking chopper and fly us out myself.’ Douglas pulled himself to his feet. ‘I’m going to go and talk to Kaboro, see if I can persuade him to lock them up before they get back.’

‘What do you mean, they?’

‘Boerman took the evac flight with Hartono.’ Even as he said it, Douglas registered the obvious with a groan of dismay.

‘Kaboro let him go, too?’ Mia shook her head. ‘This keeps getting better.’

Mia looked up sharply as the rhythmic beat of the chopper reverberated outside. Checking her watch, she frowned.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Douglas.

‘The return flight to Angoram should have taken at least another twenty minutes. They’re back too soon.’

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

As the ghostly form of the giant fig took shape in the cracked windscreen, Lieutenant Kaboro rubbed his smarting eyes. It had been a long and sleepless night, his strained senses alert to lurking threats outside in the jungle, and now within. Without comms, Hartono’s dubious claim that they had dropped Goki at Ambunti after making radio contact with the medical services could not be verified, and Kaboro had been sorely tempted to arrest them on the spot. Staying his hand was the spectre of Sir Julius. The defence minister was a powerful and vindictive man who obviously had a financial stake in the expedition, whatever its true purpose was.