He surveyed the cell. All Khalil’s possessions had been removed – his toaster taken, his food and toiletries tossed. The Quran he’d kept on his bedside table was no longer there, neither was the prayer mat, usually rolled up and leaning against the end of the bed. His box shelves were empty and the bed he’d been dragged from had been remade perfectly.

The site of the bed had made Jax inexplicably sad. He wondered what people would think if he ever admitted that a convicted terrorist had become a friend.

But neither Khalil nor anyone else would be returning to this cell. Sami had pulled whatever strings the CIA pull to make sure Jax had the room to himself, at least for the next twenty-nine days, so he wouldn’t have to worry about sleeping pills and secrets. Alone in his cell, Jax was tempted to pull out his laptop and make a start. But he didn’t. Couldn’t. Not during the day. Not with his cell door unlocked. A guard could pay an unscheduled visit at any time. An inmate could walk in. Being caught with a laptop was worse than being caught with a weapon. He’d end up in Supermax with the Serpent.

He would have to wait until lights-out. He did, however, sneak a peek at the inmate files using the iPhone, and a peek was all he needed.

THE SOON-to-be-summer sun battered the yard. A heat haze hovered above the asphalt, the empty chalk-drawn handball courts. The metal bench seats were also deserted, threatening a well-done rump for any inmate stupid enough to sit on the sizzling surface.

Jax walked towards the sun as soon as he entered the yard. His belly full after his lunch of two ham-and-cheese sandwiches, vegemite crackers and an orange juice, he squinted as he walked across the concrete, only stopping when he reached the cyclone fence.

He turned away from the sun and looked back into the yard, then climbed on a tabletop to get an elevated view. Happy with his vantage point, he nodded. With the sun at his back, he could see all of them, the entire yard. But they couldn’t see him.

Jax had learned about silhouettes while conducting a joint operation with the Navy. They’d shown him how to make a 60,000-tonne battleship disappear using nothing but the sky and the sun. While he couldn’t make himself vanish, he could use the sun to make himself unrecognisable. Just a black outline. And that’s what he was now. No one in the yard would detect him spying and studying. No one in the yard would know they were a suspect.