‘Porters?’ said Caleb.

‘To help carry, track, et cetera.’

‘But hold on. We’re not fat old Americans, incapable of carrying our own gear.’

Under his breath Xander said, ‘He should possibly can the racist stuff.’

Innocent had a wide, disarming smile, and deployed it now. ‘I know. Strong young guys,’ he said. ‘And girl! But it’s dense vegetation here and difficult underfoot. Also for the tracking, best to have more eyes.’

‘But you’ve been employed to do the guiding,’ Caleb insisted. ‘We don’t need extras. The four of us can carry whatever we need.’

‘Does it really matter?’ Xander muttered.

As if explaining the alphabet to a two-year-old, Caleb said, ‘Age-old scam – rack up the cost with unnecessary extra help.’

‘But Jack’s parents paid in advance,’ Amelia pointed out.

‘Yes, but they’ll all want tipping,’ Caleb replied.

‘OK, no problem!’ Innocent waved Caleb’s concerns – and three of the porters – away. Pointing to the last one he said, ‘Just Marcel. He stays. Marcel is strong as two men anyway, also ex-army, and best tracker in DRC. After me of course.’ He pulled his handheld GPS navigation device from his pocket and waved it at us, attempting to divert our attention with the joke.

Marcel, who happened to have a semi-automatic rifle slung casually over his shoulder, helped him out by saying, ‘Oui, mais moi je n’ai pas besoin de piles.’

Amelia laughed at that and said, ‘He says he doesn’t need batteries.’

For a moment I thought Caleb might argue all help was unnecessary, but Innocent, in his sing-song voice, cut him off by adding, ‘Can be dangerous animals. Security!’ and that seemed to get through to him.

Innocent then told us what to include in our daypacks. The usual: spare dry clothes, a hat and water for the day. I added a few bits I’d brought along: a penknife, matches, mosquito repellent, flashlight and a new roll of super-strong duct tape I’d packed because Dad once told me the stuff was capable of mending just about anything. We parcelled out what seemed to me to be more than enough food and water between us. I had to admit Caleb was right: we wouldn’t need any help with what we had to carry. But that just left me with a nagging worry. I liked Innocent. He had a trustworthy face, and I knew Mum and Dad would have paid him properly. I didn’t think he’d been trying to pull a fast one as Caleb had suggested, which meant he must have thought we needed extra local help for some other reason. What did ‘security’ refer to? Which ‘dangerous animals’ did he mean?

12.

Before we set off, Innocent gave us each a long stick to walk with, explaining that it might come in handy for bashing a path through the jungle. He and Marcel had straight-edged machetes. When Caleb saw them, he leaned his pole up against the gnarled tree we were standing beneath and ducked back into the tent to fetch his own machete from his kitbag.