So Sami was almost certain that he had his men. Ideally, he preferred to be completely certain, and doubts remained. While confident they were set to scoop up a cell – plotters and soldiers alike – he couldn’t be sure it was the entire cell. But now, in the early hours of 24 November, ‘fairly certain’ would have to suffice.

It was on.

‘Copy,’ Sami said when Clarke informed him that the extraction was done and the raid was to commence.

Sami put down the radio, gave Mav a nod and spoke into the microphone to the commander of the NSW Police Special Protection Group (SPG), who was waiting on the ground with his team.

‘We are green,’ Sami said.

The SPG was unleashed.

ASIO was required by law to use the NSW Police unit for public arrests. Though the SPG weren’t as highly trained as Clarke’s commandos, Sami was impressed nonetheless. He and Mav watched the body-cam footage from their van as the spear of the SPG battle-group stormed towards the terrorists’ apartment block. The battering ram known as the ‘big red key’ made easy work of the entrance door, and the team moved swiftly and smoothly up the stairs, everything seemingly going like clockwork.

Sami heard the explosion before his screens went dead, a thundering blast. He dived to the floor, pulling Mav with him, as the two-tonne van rocked back and forth in the shockwaves and shrapnel fell from the sky, a hailstorm of smashed glass and shattered bricks.

When the aerial assault ceased, Sami pulled his hands from his head and got up on his knees.

‘You right?’ he asked Mav, who had a look on his face like he’d just had the smug knocked right out of him.

‘Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,’ he replied, rising gingerly.

Sami reefed open the van door and stumbled onto the sidewalk. Mav tumbled out after him. The apartment they had been looking at for the last three days was gone. So were the ones under it, above it and next to it. Flames licked the shell that remained.

CHAPTER 40

Goulburn Correctional Centre, Goulburn, NSW, Australia

The guard burst into Jax’s open cell. ‘Visit,’ he barked.

Finally, Jax thought. He’d been expecting a visit from Clarke since the day before. Following the 2 am extraction, he’d sat alone on his bed in the dark, waiting for an explanation. He’d had then watched the sun rise, figuring answers would come with the morning. They didn’t.

Jax had gone to muster and listened hard, not for the numbers that were being called, but the ones that weren’t. The wing was suddenly down five men. The guard either didn’t notice or knew that they were gone. Either way, there was no explanation.