Crumbs snapped his head towards the door, ‘You two, get outside. We need to talk about this.’

Jack’s head throbbed and he felt himself slipping into a dark abyss. He tried to stay with it and listen to what Crumbs, Tonka and Blue were talking about. He hoped that the phone had stayed on long enough for Dave to pick up the GPS signal. It seemed the men had forgotten about the phone sending out a signal. They were more concerned about what they were going to do with him.

He could feel the blood running down his cheek. His nose was already beginning to swell and he knew he was going to have a whopping shiner over his eye. He also knew that would be the least of his worries if Dave didn’t get here soon.

‘Come on, come on,’ he muttered, straining to hear something that would indicate his rescue team were close by.

All he heard was Crumbs speaking. ‘We’re gonna have to bury him.’

‘Jeez, mate, I don’t know about that. That’s cold-blooded murder. I don’t want to be involved in that. Protesting and doing over a piggery is one thing, murdering a copper is different matter altogether,’ said Blue.

‘Well, he’s got to disappear somehow,’ said Tonka. ‘Otherwise he’s gonna dob us in. We can’t just let him go.’

Jack could hear the crunching of boots outside as one of the men paced. He twisted his wrists, trying to loosen his hands, knowing it was futile against the cable ties.

It was Blue’s voice that came next, but he used a different name: ‘Clarry, you can’t do it, mate. He’s a copper. If we get caught, we’ll never see the outside of prison again.’

‘Don’t you go getting cold feet on me. We’re in this together and we have to decide what we’re going to do with him.’

Who the hell is Clarry? Jack wondered.

Crumbs’ voice: ‘I know, Paul, but …’

They’re using their real names, Jack realised. A wave of fog rolled through his head and he groaned. He wanted to be sick, but he breathed deeply through his nose and the feeling passed.

‘… but he knows too much anyway. We’ve got more likelihood of being able to disappear with him dead. We’ll have to go interstate or somewhere.’

Blue’s voice again: ‘John, listen to me. What about we just knock him out? The cops will find him at some stage, surely. He doesn’t have to die.’

‘Okay. Clarry. Paul. John. Stay with it, Jack,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Listen. Just listen.’

‘We should have learned from the last time.’ Jack thought that was Tonka aka John.

They’ve killed before? Jack strained to hear.

‘That was different.’ Blue aka Paul. ‘That person was a nobody. This bloke here, he’s a copper.’