‘Well, well, the intrepid Doctor Carter . . . didn’t you turn out to be elusive?’ Sura sat down on the leather couch, crossed her slim legs and looked around. ‘You know, this place is like an adventure novel come to life – evil Nazis hiding out in the jungle, sitting on a stolen fortune for generations. If I hadn’t found the evidence myself, I would never have believed it.’

Hate was an emotion Mia Carter had no experience of, but she could feel it coating her tongue and the words dripped out thickly.

‘I have no idea what you are talking about. The only evil I’ve ever seen in this place is sitting right in front of me.’

‘Oh, so Paul never spoke to you about his mysterious mother and father – how he came to be living in the middle of nowhere? Show her what he kept in the safe, Kapten.’

Alatas produced an exotic pistol finished in gold and silver. In one smooth motion, he cocked it and pointed it at Mia’s face. She barely heard Douglas’s cry as the smirking Alatas pulled the trigger. The loud click was followed by girlish giggles from Sura, and Mia had to hang on to the orange soda rumbling in her gut.

‘That was a dog act,’ said Douglas shakily.

Alatas reversed the pistol and held it up so Mia could see the details.

‘It’s a Luger 9 mm, handcrafted in Berlin in 1937 for Paul Ford’s biological father. Observe the engraved initials on the barrel.’

‘M. H.?’ Mia glanced dully at Sura. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Paul’s surrogate father, and the founder of your precious Ford Mission, was Jürgen Furth, a Nazi doctor travelling back to Europe on a Japanese submarine which deviated up the Sepik in 1945 – the only one out of several hundred Japanese sailors and a squad of brutal SS men to make it out alive. He found his way back to Germany, only to return a few years later as George Ford. It’s not hard to understand why, Doctor Carter. Four tonnes of gold bullion is a compelling incentive.’

Whether this fantastic tale was true or not, Mia could only wonder what she had done to make this woman hate her so much.

‘What exactly do you want from me?’

Sura raised an eyebrow. ‘Clearly you don’t have to be intelligent to gain a medical degree. What I want, Doctor Carter, is the gold, and an incentive for your new boyfriend to get it out for me.’ She stared at Mia’s hands, then looked at Alatas in annoyance. ‘Why isn’t she tied up? I want these two on location first thing in the morning.’

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Being the truthful account of Dr Jürgen Fürth (George Ford), Papua, October 1945