The Kopassus command post was a spacious TNI standard-issue twenty-man army tent with sealed floor and ridge poles. A desk and a computer had been set up, along with several folding chairs, a large whiteboard, two powerful fans and crates of assorted equipment. Outside, a generator purred quietly.

‘You’ve done well at short notice,’ Sura told Alatas, who was pouring them drinks at the small fridge. ‘This is very civilised.’

It was strange how the man always looked like a well-pressed peacock, no matter the circumstances. She supposed it helped having a corporal as a personal valet.

‘Your father doesn’t do things by half. Neither do we.’

‘Is that inter-service rivalry, or something more primitive?’

He passed her a glass of iced tea. ‘You know, I can’t get that night in Jayapura out of my mind.’ His eyes gleamed over the rim of the glass. ‘Perhaps I might find you in my tent this evening?’

Sura produced a wicked smile. ‘Sounds tempting. But I won’t be able to relax until we have what we came for. Perhaps we can celebrate then?’

Alatas drained his glass and banged it down on the table. ‘Well, we’d best get this show on the road.’

The tent filled with his troops, who stood at the back while Rob Nash and Mia Carter were seated on chairs in the front row. Beside Alatas, Jaap towered over the whiteboard, his face grim. Sura knew he was getting jealous again, and that Alatas’s familiarity was the cause.

Alatas cleared his throat. ‘Rain is imminent, so listen carefully to Mba Suyanto because I want this matter expedited as a matter of extreme urgency.’

With a suggestive grin, he passed her the whiteboard marker, which she promptly tossed across to the glowering big man.

‘Jaap, would you please take us through the plan of attack?’

Stooping down, Boerman drew a narrow bucket to represent the sinkhole, and then the outline of the curved submarine within. This elicited a few sniggers from the back row.

‘Are you boys or men?’ Sura stared them into silence.

Boerman added two vertical lines bisecting the submarine’s outline.

‘There are two decks inside each pressure hull.’ Then he drew a cross on the upper starboard side, about halfway to the bow. ‘The gold store is here, but it’s a long way from the split in the hull, over here. So, we’ll blow a hole in the side, right next to the gold store, to expedite access and retrieval.’ With the back of the marker he tapped the lower half of the submarine. ‘While we weren’t able to access the stern, we know there are compartments full of opium. So, we will also cut a hole just aft of the rear deck gun.’

‘Thank you, Jaap. Are there any questions?’

Nash promptly put his hand up. ‘Are you seriously proposing to use explosives near the torpedo room? It’s barely ten metres away.’