‘You wanted to be involved,’ he said. ‘How does it feel?’

‘Fucking incredible.’ Jack felt sick.

‘Get a move on.’

The four men tracked back the way they had come, stripped off and placed everything in the boot.

Jack expected there to be some high-fives in celebration, but there was nothing. They didn’t even speak; just got in the van in the same configuration and drove away.

This time Jack did speak. ‘Are we done or doing more?’

‘You’ll know soon enough.’

When Crumbs opened the back door of the van, the first thing Jack saw was a red smudge on the horizon. They were facing east. There was an outline of a humpy to the left and Jack could smell the salty air of the sea. Not having known which direction they had driven in, he wasn’t sure if they’d headed north along the Port Wakefield road or south towards the Coorong National Park.

What he did know was it wouldn’t be long before the sun was up.

Jack looked around. The scrubland seemed to come very close to the walls of the humpy and the soil looked sandy. They must be very close to the coast but he had no idea where, only that the drive had taken an hour and a half according to his watch.

‘Good job, boys,’ Crumbs said and clapped Tonka and Blue on the shoulders. ‘Now let the fun begin. Come on, let’s get a feed.’

The shack was one room, the bedroom doubling as a kitchen. Jack couldn’t see a toilet or shower, but he guessed they were outside. The toilet was probably the closest bush. A pot-belly stove stood in the middle of the room and Crumbs lit it with wood piled up next to it. The walls were lined with four beds.

‘What are we doing here?’ Jack asked.

‘We go off grid every time we do a job. Stay here until the heat dies down,’ Crumbs answered.

‘What do you want me to do?’ Jack asked, hoping he could get to the van and see where his phone was. He could only hope there was mobile reception out here.

Blue and Tonka seemed to know the routine and were pulling out sleeping bags from plastic tubs and throwing them on the beds.

‘Grab a bit more wood from outside. Pile is out the door to the right.’

As he went to find the woodpile, Jack desperately cast around for something that would give him a clue as to where he was. There wasn’t anything—not that he’d expected to see a town name but it would have been useful.

Jack felt very exposed out here by himself.

He put the wood down next to the stove and watched as Tonka fed the overalls into the fire. They fizzed and melted, and the orange flames burned up through them.

‘What are you doing that for?’ Jack asked.