Nick heard the beep of a phone. Chas pulled out his mobile and answered. ‘Yeah? … Yeah, right … OK.’ He ended the call and looked towards Nick and Michaela. ‘Time to move, you two. Walk slowly round here.’

They started moving. As they rounded the front of the van, Nick saw a black four-wheel-drive parked a short distance away, shielded from him till now by the van. And he saw a figure heading down the footpath from the headland above them: a loose-limbed, muscular-looking man in windcheater and jeans, with short-cropped hair and a growth of beard.

‘It’s Espersen,’ murmured Michaela.

‘You know him?’

‘He works for Driscoll.’

‘Walk over to the car,’ said Chas.

They headed towards the 4WD. Espersen would have got there before them, but he pulled up and called to Chas, ‘I want them inside the car. OK?’

‘OK,’ said Chas. ‘But you stay where you are until I get the word from down there.’ He nodded over his shoulder towards the trio at the other end of the beach.

‘Good enough,’ said Espersen.

‘You can get in,’ Chas called after Nick and Michaela.

Michaela took the nearside rear door and climbed into the car. Nick walked round to the other side. He caught a glance from Espersen as he did so – blue-eyed and piercing. Something in it made him hesitate.

After watching the movements at the other end of the beach, Wada lowered the binoculars and looked down to the group on the beach directly below her. Driscoll hadn’t moved. Nor had Nishizaki, who beckoned for Driscoll to approach him. But still Driscoll didn’t move. Nishizaki said something into his phone, then strode forward.

He was within reach of Driscoll when he suddenly pulled up and said something. Driscoll didn’t appear to reply. He simply raised both arms in the air above his head.

‘OK,’ was all Chas said into his phone. Nick glanced up the slope at Espersen, who was looking along the beach. Nick followed the line of his gaze. There was Driscoll in the blurry distance. As Nick watched, he raised both arms in the air above his head. Something prompted Nick to look back at Espersen in that instant. There was an object nestling in his palm. His thumb moved over it – and pressed down.

A massive roar split the silence. Wada glimpsed a fountain of sand and a gush of flame and black smoke. Then a wall of hot air struck her. She squeezed her eyes shut and felt her hair being blown back.

As she opened her eyes, the smoke and the rumbling echo of the explosion rose into the sky above the beach. Grains of sand fell around her in a fine rain. She looked down. Driscoll, Nishizaki and the security man had vanished, swallowed by an eruption from beneath. There was a crater where they’d been standing, filled with smoke.