‘I always get a massive appetite after a job like this. All the adrenalin running through the system.’ It was Blue who spoke then.

‘How many jobs like this would you do in a year?’ Jack asked.

‘What, you want to do another real soon?’ Tonka slapped Jack on the back. ‘You found a keen one here, Crumbs!’

Jack turned to see Crumbs staring at him. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I did.’

‘We do them when we think we’re going to make an impact,’ Blue answered as he put his plate in the plastic washing-up bowl and stretched. ‘Well, that’s me, I reckon.’ He yawned and the others followed, slurping their drinks and scraping the last food from their plates.

Within ten minutes, the men fell into the beds and slept.

Jack didn’t. He thought of all the pigs that would be suffering from heat stress. The fear and discomfort they would be feeling. His helplessness at not being able to alert anyone.

No one, not even Dave, had told him it could be like this when you were undercover. That you could be powerless to be able to put something right.

Of course, the farmer would find the heat-stressed animals first thing in the morning—he might even be there now. But it would be too late. It only took a short amount of time for pigs to overheat and die. He curled his hand into a fist and thumped at his pillow. Tonka gave a loud snore, before rolling over and muttering something unintelligible in his sleep.

Jack sighed, thumped his pillow again and rolled over. The bed was uncomfortable, and he felt as if there was a spring sticking into his back. After lying there for what he guessed was a good hour, he decided he had to get out. Quietly he threw back the bedcovers and tiptoed to the door.

He made it outside without anyone else stirring, but now what was he going to do? He didn’t have any idea where he was—a bush humpy in the middle of the scrub. He had no way of knowing how far away from anywhere he was or even which direction to walk. Could he just disappear into the bush and risk it? He didn’t think so.

Jack walked further down the track to see if he could identify any landmarks, but there was nothing that jumped out at him. The trees were growing on an angle, as if they had been battered by winds in their formative stages.

‘Where the fuck do you think you’re going?’

Jack spun around and saw Crumbs training a gun on him.

Instantly he put his hands in the air. ‘For a slash, man. What’s with the gun? You nervous or something?’

‘You should be back inside sleeping.’

‘I’m fucking wired! Bit hard to come down after what we’ve just done.’

‘You better come back inside with me.’

CHAPTER 32

Chapter 32