The Shaman and headman did the rounds with the local sake-like whisky. Then the Shaman moved outside to the group of five. They accepted his offer of small cups of the harsh drink, each throwing down four shots in a row.

Rooms were allocated to the tourists for the night. Cavalier slipped away on the excuse that he wanted to see the temple at the top of a hill. Instead of returning to the village where passengers, crew and locals mixed, he walked to the boat and retrieved his recorder. With no one on board, he decided to go through the tape there. He took notes. The group discussed his demise, having come to the conclusion that he was the ‘spy’. Amaz was forced into agreeing to her first murder. Her earlier brave talk had collapsed. The conversation chilled him.

‘You have to do it,’ Hollos told her. ‘Otherwise we must get rid of you.’

‘Get rid of me! What does that mean?’

‘Whatever you want it to.’

There was a long pause before Hollos added, ‘You know too much.’

‘You are either with us in everything, or out,’ Leni chipped in.

‘You’ve been with us in a lot of things,’ Hollos said. ‘This will be easy. Isolate him in the Pacou Caves. He’s put his name down for the tour to climb to the top. It’s over three hundred steps with lots of twists.’

‘But other tourists will be with him,’ Amaz protested.

‘Only three are listed to go. The other two are Vivien, the Maori woman, and William, the American.’

‘You can’t be sure the doctor is the agent,’ Amaz said.

‘We’ve spoken to Geoffreys,’ Hollos said. ‘He has known William, the American, for two decades. He runs a family business in Tokyo and he is married to a Japanese. He’s what he says he is. Geoffreys knows the Maori woman. They’re both Kiwis who go back thirty years, and are former lovers, at a guess.’

‘That leaves the good doctor,’ Hollos said, ‘who gave himself away by his comment to you at the village.’

There was another pause, longer this time. Cavalier checked the tape, thinking it may have finished. Then Amaz asked, ‘How do we know he’s been spying on us? There’s no evidence.’

‘We have an informant in the CIA,’ Hollos replied. ‘The information was that there would be another Australian agent on the tour this month.’

‘You said he had an English passport,’ Amaz said.

‘English, Australian; what’s the difference?’ Hollis replied.

‘About twenty thousand kilometres!’

‘He would have a false passport,’ Leni said.

‘Shouldn’t we interrogate him first?’ Amaz asked.

‘That would draw attention to us,’ Hollos said. ‘We need a quick, untraceable elimination. You can get him in one of the top caves.’