After Wallace told him everything he knew about the security keys and the transfer coordinates, Casey had a brainwave. He knew that a mission was coming up in which Mort Bramnik, along with other high-ranking types visiting from the Authority, were due to get a tour of the island and of a recently opened alternate. And since Bramnik carried a copy of this high-security document everywhere with him, maybe there could be an opportunity to steal it – at this point, Bramnik just wasn’t around that much, having to deal with politics ‘back home’. Then, with the private transfer stage provided by Greenbrooke, Casey and Wallace would be able to make their own escape without waiting for the Authority’s permission. They even talked about sharing that information with the rest of us, in case we also felt like lighting out.

So Casey and Wallace started planning a supreme act of sabotage – one that had nothing to do with Greenbrooke’s plans for taking over the Pathfinder project. Their plan was to disrupt the mission enough that Bramnik, along with everyone else, would be forced to evacuate back to the island at short notice. Somewhere in the chaos, Casey would try and find an opportunity to separate Bramnik from his briefcase.

Their plan worked, although Casey wasn’t able to get his hands on the briefcase at the time. Instead he returned to the Howler alternate a day or two later and hunted around until he found the abandoned case. He brought it back and gave it to Wallace who, when he next returned to the base compound to make use of the computers there, was able to gain root access to otherwise secure networks. There, he could find out which specific coordinates related to which alternates.

By the time Wallace told me all this, some hours had passed, and it was well into the early hours of the morning. I could see a hint of dawn light gleaming through a narrow gap between the window frame and the sheet of black card covering it.

I asked Wallace the next, obvious, question: if he and Casey had the means to leave forever, why hadn’t they done so already?

At about this time Wallace started to lose his nerve and didn’t want to talk any more, however much I promised him I’d help protect him from Casey and also from the Patriots. He was never a strong-willed man. I knew most of what he’d done had been at Casey’s instigation. But I could tell he was still holding something back – something that clearly terrified him.