Was it worth checking inside the car for jump leads? She had nothing to lose. She went back round to the driver’s door and climbed in. The door pockets contained an owner’s manual and a road map of Iceland. She pulled open the glove box.

No jump leads. But there was a phone. Wada wondered whether Ohara might have taken care to ensure he could use it wherever he went in the country. She picked it up and pressed a few buttons experimentally. The screen lit – at least it hadn’t lost all its charge – but there also were the dreaded words NO SIGNAL.

She tossed the phone back into the glove box. Then a frail hope flickered. Was there no signal because, like her phone, Ohara’s didn’t work this far into the interior? Or simply because she was inside a car inside a barn with thick stone walls?

She picked the phone up again, climbed from the car and headed out into the daylight.

She was ten metres or so from the barn when a service provider’s name popped up in place of NO SIGNAL. And she smiled for the first time in days.

She hurried over to George’s car and took her phone from where she’d left it on a shelf beneath the dashboard. She wasn’t going to call the police. There would just be too much to explain, and if they linked her to the break-in at Quartizon’s offices in Reykjavík she might simply be swapping one kind of imprisonment for another. No. She needed to get away from Stóri-Asgarbær. So, she needed someone to come and fetch her.

She called up Erla’s number on her phone, then rang it on Ohara’s, hoping Erla would answer, even though she wouldn’t recognize the number.

She didn’t. No matter. Wada started recording a message. ‘Erla, this is Wada. It’s very—’

Then Erla interrupted. ‘That’s you, Wada?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where are you?’

‘A place called Stóri-Asgarbær. It is a farm. A long way from Reykjavík.’

‘Why are you there?’

‘There is no time to explain. Erla, I am in serious trouble. I have to get away from here. But I have no car I can use. I am stranded. Can you help me?’

‘You want me to come and get you?’

‘Yes. Yes please. As soon as you can.’

‘I’ve got no car. But … I could hire one.’

‘Do that.’

‘OK. OK, I’ll hire one and come to you. But where is …’

‘Stóri-Asgarbær.’

‘Where is that … exactly?’

‘I can give you the coordinates.’

‘The coordinates?’

‘Precise latitude and longitude.’

‘OK. I guess that would work.’

‘Hold on.’ Wada moved to the tailgate and swung it open. She slipped the Emergence document out of her bag and read off the coordinates for Stóri-Asgarbær. ‘You have that?’

Erla read them back.