With Russia and all of the former Soviet states joining America and all of its allies to form the biggest international army ever assembled, Forrester would have both the might and the justification to invade, occupy and install a pro-American government in every Middle Eastern state. Fundamentalism would be crushed, Islam would be censored and they would have the oil. All of it.

Nobody outside America and Australia knew the truth about the attacks. The identities of the three known attackers had been kept classified. A state secret. Aside from the US President and Secretary of State, the head of the CIA and the Australian Prime Minster, the only others who knew were the ones who had to know.

After reading the update, Jax stowed his phone and spent the day in the yard. He watched and listened. Narrowed his list of suspects as much as he could.

TWENTY-five days and counting. . .

Jax spent the next day attempting to rank the names that were left on his list. He would never be able to get to all of them, so he would start with the most likely and work his way back. He sat up in bed that night studying target number 1: Eli Said, a convicted car thief who’d run Australia’s biggest car rebirthing operation before his arrest.

Jax didn’t sleep until he’d thought up a way in. He googled things like What’s the difference between a big block and a small block?, 351 Windsor v. 351 Cleveland, and What’s an Eleanor?

TWENTY-four days . . .

Jax made contact with Said. Armed with the knowledge that Said was an American muscle-car collector, Jax began bragging about having a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Fastback while eating his lunch. Said, within earshot, took the bait.

Jax spent that night on his laptop, googling Chevrolet, classic car restorations, engine builders and similar terms.

TWENTY-three days . . .

With their shared passion established, Jax spent the next day in the yard telling Said why the 69 Mustang was better than the 69 Camaro. He then spent the night in his cell wondering how he could get him talking about anything other than cars before Christmas.

He also began studying target number 2, Sam Baz, a convicted arms dealer with known ties to ISIS. Jax spent the night on his laptop, searching Canterbury-Bankstown Junior Rugby League, St Johns JRL, Roosters RL . . .

TWENTY-two days . . .

Jax appealed to Baz’s ego. He pretended to recognise him in the yard.

‘Hey, you used to play for St Johns,’ he said. ‘You were that gun centre. You played a bit for the Roosters too, right? Man, you should be playing in the NRL.’ Jax had found all the team lists and year books on the internet.

‘Yeah, man,’ Baz said. ‘You see me play?’