Dave held his breath as he watched the screen. There were heat images of people swarming over the room. Dave could see a cluster of men bending over the body that was outside and the same images on the inside of the hut.

‘Come on, come on. What’s going on?’ he muttered to himself.

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, a voice said through the headset, ‘Cargo is secure. Your boy is okay,’ and Dave let out a long, shaky breath.

Jack was safe.

‘All clear!’

Dave threw down his headphones and left the van where he’d been stationed on the outer circle. He ran towards the hut and within seconds he was inside, his eyes taking everything in.

Three men on the floor, cuffed. Two yelling and one unconscious. ‘Ambos,’ he instructed.

‘On their way.’

A STAR team member was guiding Jack out into the sunlight. In two steps, Dave was next to him.

‘Okay?’

‘Nothing that a bit of water and ice won’t fix,’ Jack said through a fat lip and swelling nose.

‘Get him checked out,’ Dave told the officer. ‘I’ll be right back.’ He stood and looked around carefully. Something on the floor caught his attention and he walked over, hands in his pockets, and looked at it. The broken pieces of one of their surveillance pens. Shit.

‘Dave?’ Two Major Crime detectives had entered the house on the call of ‘clear’.

He indicated the smashed pen on the ground. ‘Jack had two pens. I can only see the remnants of one.’

‘We’ll take it from here.’

Dave nodded and stood back as he watched two members of the STAR squad lift up one of the blokes and shove him towards the door. One of the detectives called out, ‘Make sure he gets checked out by the ambos.’

With nothing more to do, Dave left the shack and went back to the patrol car.

‘How are you holding up?’ he asked Jack as he got into the vehicle.

Jack had had the blood cleaned from his face and was leaning back against the seat with his eyes shut.

‘Good meds, whatever the ambos gave me,’ he answered. ‘Feel great.’

‘Don’t get too used to them,’ Dave said with a grin. ‘They’re probably some kind of narcotic—Endone or something full-on like that!’

‘No wonder people take them. I feel like I’m sliding into a warm bath.’

Dave looked at Jack, who hadn’t opened his eyes, and felt a rush of appreciation for the work of the STAR team. They’d done a quick and professional job of getting Jack out of there and he was grateful his mate was okay.

‘We gotta have a bit of a debrief here, Jack. Did you get anything? And what did you have to do?’