She listened as I talked, and soon fell into a deep silence. A number of jeeps roared past us, headed back to the base and packed full of more Patriot agents than I’d ever seen at once. Choking dust rose in their wake, and I felt a terrible sense of foreboding.

When we finally walked into the Hotel du Mauna Loa, we found Yuichi attending to his still, while Randall, Oskar, Winifred and Selwyn sat together around a table near the movie projector. For once, there wasn’t a film showing, nor were either of the Nuyakpuk cousins there. Chloe made her way over to the bar and sat near Yuichi, her expression bleak.

There was, I noticed, still no sign of Haden. But that didn’t worry me as much as the fact that neither was there any sign of Rozalia. It had been a couple of hours since she had set out to investigate the wrecked trawler, and I felt sure she should have been back long before now.

‘So?’ demanded Oskar, leaning back in his seat and peering over at me. ‘The island’s going to hell, and you’ve got the inside scoop, or so I hear.’

I looked around the room. ‘I guess you’ve all heard about Kip Mayer,’ I said. Heads nodded. ‘I think the fact they’ve arrested him is a pretty strong indication that the Patriots are trying to take over the running of operations on the island.’

Randall, sitting beside Selwyn, shook his head and chuckled. ‘You think we couldn’t figure that out? Sounds like you don’t have any more idea what’s going on than any of the rest of us.’

I glared at him. ‘I know more than you think.’

‘I saw the three of you pull up outside Wallace’s this morning,’ said Yuichi. ‘You and Chloe and Roz. We all did. Selwyn and Randall tried to find you after Wallace’s house burned down and none of you was home. So where were you all night?’

I dropped my satchel on a table and lifted out the oilskin-wrapped package. ‘Looking for this,’ I replied, unfolding the package and lifting out the bundled pages within.

I held the sheaf of paper up so they could all see it. ‘This was written by the man I replaced,’ I told them. ‘The first Jerry Beche.’ I saw the uncertain looks on their faces. ‘He hid it well, for reasons I’ll explain.’

I stepped over to Yuichi and dropped the untidy pile of paper on his lap. He stared down at it all with a puzzled expression.

‘Read it,’ I said, then turned to the others. ‘You all should. It’ll tell you exactly what’s been going on around here right under your noses, since before I was even retrieved.’

‘What does it say?’ asked Winifred, peering anxiously towards Yuichi, who was flicking curiously through the pages.