She couldn’t grasp for the moment what had happened. But one thought surfaced before any other. This was Driscoll’s doing. This was his plan.

It had been him or Nishizaki. And he’d found his solution. It was neither of them.

A massive roar split the silence. Nick saw a fountain of sand and a gush of flame and black smoke at the other end of the beach. Driscoll and the two men who’d been standing with him vanished into it, swallowed whole by the explosion.

‘What the fuck?’ Chas shouted. But he didn’t move. Neither did Butch. They gaped, like Nick, at the sudden spout of destruction.

Only Espersen was prepared for what had happened. He reached the 4WD in several long strides and leant across the bonnet, levelling a gun at Chas, who turned slowly and stared at him, slack-jawed in bewilderment.

‘What … the fuck’s going on?’ he mumbled.

‘Your employer and my employer are dead,’ said Espersen. ‘But you’re alive and I’m alive and so are Dr Morrisette and Mr Miller. The explosion will have woken the village. We won’t be alone here for much longer. Probably someone is already calling the police. We all need to leave. With no shots fired. Otherwise it ends ugly for everyone. You understand?’

Chas looked as if his reactions hadn’t yet caught up with events; as if understanding anything was pretty much beyond him.

‘You and your two friends need to get into your van and drive away while you still can.’

‘Did you … set that bomb off?’

‘I did what I was told to do. Now you need to do the same. In the next ten seconds.’

‘The fuckers have … screwed us,’ said Dave, stumbling into view from the other side of the van.

‘Are you going to go quietly or not?’ demanded Espersen. ‘The man who hired you is dead. You’re not going to get paid. So write the job off. And leave now. It’s the sane thing to do. And you are sane, aren’t you?’

Chas grimaced, as if swallowing something he didn’t like the taste of. ‘Fuck it,’ he said, glaring along the beach at the plume of smoke. ‘Let’s go, boys.’

‘What the fuck went wrong?’ wailed Dave.

‘Doesn’t matter. We should hit the road.’

Chas headed for the van. Butch, who’d said nothing throughout, followed him. And Dave followed as well. They all climbed in. Chas started up, reversed across the road, then took off in a spray of sand.

Espersen put his gun back inside his windcheater and turned towards Nick. ‘We need to go as well. Get in the car, Mr Miller.’

Nick didn’t move.

‘We really need to go.’

‘Driscoll just died,’ Nick said numbly.

Espersen nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘You set this up?’

‘I did what he told me to do. I buried the explosive in a waterproof canister under the beach before dawn yesterday.’