If I’d ever called Amelia a ‘good girl’, she’d have ripped my arm off and beaten me to death with the bloody end of it, but unbelievably she let this go with, ‘All I meant was that I’m not sleepy.’

‘And you want to see the gorillas, yes?’ Caleb asked.

‘Gorillas, yes. But not guerrillas. Primates not poachers.’

‘Of course,’ said Caleb. ‘But we pinpointed yesterday’s poachers for the rangers –’ he made it sound like he’d done it himself – ‘so they’ll be out of the equation, and anyway the mountain gorillas are in a completely different part of the national park. The chances of coming across two sets of poachers in one trip has to be infinitesimal.’

‘That’s not actually the way statistics work in this context,’ Amelia couldn’t help explaining. That was more like it! But annoyingly she went on, ‘It doesn’t matter though. I’d still like to see them.’

A scraggy-necked chicken, which had been pecking at the dirt a few metres off, now wandered in among us. Caleb addressed Innocent: ‘We signed up for chimpanzees and mountain gorillas. You’re not going to let a minor scare like yesterday derail things, are you?’

While Innocent searched for a way to answer him Caleb waved at the chicken with the flat of his machete blade. Dust rose from the bird’s wings as it flapped-skittered away.

‘We could always come back,’ said Xander, more to help Innocent out than because he believed it. Hearing the hollowness in his own words he dug deeper. ‘You know, later in the trip. We’ve got another three weeks.’

‘You might have,’ said Caleb. ‘But not all of us are on holiday.’ He drew himself tall. ‘I have work to do, starting next week.’

Amelia couldn’t help correcting them both. ‘Work experience,’ she said to Caleb. ‘Though it’s still work of course.’ Turning to Xander she added, ‘Logistics-and-costs-wise, travelling all the way to Kinshasa and back makes zero sense. It’s not as if there’ll be fewer poachers to run into a fortnight from now.’

It occurred to me that Amelia really did want to see the mountain gorillas. She’d researched everything about the trip in advance, chimpanzees included, but from what she’d already told me about the gorillas, I reckon she could write a book on them. And yet she hadn’t spent the night without shelter in the jungle. That burning, tumbled sensation I get in my stomach when I’m exhausted was still there: the idea of heading back into the jungle feeling the way I was made me feel sick. Sensing my misgivings, Caleb upped the ante. ‘Of course, I’m not suggesting we head out to look for them today. But first thing tomorrow, when everyone’s had a decent night’s sleep, you’ll all be up for it then, yes?’