Alatas made his way gingerly across the blood-soaked deck. Taking careful aim so as to avoid ricochet or blood spray, he put two bullets into the top of Singkepe’s head. The big man sighed and lay still. Alatas holstered his pistol.

‘Throw them over the side,’ he barked at the soldiers. ‘Quickly now.’

Only when the sound of the Jet Ranger had dwindled to nothing did Saworno timidly make his way up the ladder. With shaking hands and a bone-dry mouth, he peered through the hatch into the passageway. From down in the engine room, the sounds of gunfire and screams had chilled his blood. He had been waiting in terror for someone to come down and kill him, too, because, aside from the lieutenant, he had no friends left on this ship.

‘Kaboro?’ he called tentatively into the passageway. ‘Is anyone here?’

They had used a hose, but there were still pools of diluted blood drying on the deck. Saworno walked the perimeter of the ship and checked the milky water below. There was no sign of anyone. The current had taken them all.

The little engineer felt completely adrift. When he’d been offered this job, it had been a godsend; his retirement pension was inadequate, and there was the joy of returning to a job he’d loved, with the bonus of escaping his wife’s nagging tongue. Saworno anxiously checked the sky for the chopper. Had they forgotten he existed, or did they just see him as part of the engines? Either way, it was clear they would want no witnesses.

He scanned the banks of the river. The dense riverine jungle was like an alien world, and he knew he would not survive it either.

‘Your time is over,’ he said aloud. He would not see his beloved wife, Amirah, his son, Intan, or his three grandchildren again.

The thought of them gave him pause. Even if he was consumed by the jungle, what if they took retribution on his family?

Inshallah.

He was too old to fight, too old to run – and that only left one option. He had to get word out about the evil happening here.

Old muscles a-quiver, he began lowering the tender.

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Only by the dim light of a dying watch did Rob Nash know it was dawn outside. Even so, it took him more than an hour to summon up the courage to make the long swim back out of the darkness. The jade glow of the entrance pool welcomed him in like an old friend, but its comfort was fleeting. His sleepless vigil had provided no answers, and the hollow pit in the centre of his chest had returned.