‘I promise you, there are loads of animals around here. It’s normal, it’s just nature, it’s nothing to worry about.’

Franck was used to his surroundings and nothing would have surprised him. It didn’t matter whether the noise was coming from foxes, polecats or wolves; he couldn’t truly say he would recognise any of their cries. The dog was the only one there who knew that the barking sounds were coming from deer alerting others to a threat. He stopped for just a moment. For now, they were of no interest to him.

Liem and Travis paused when they got to the top. They glanced at their phones, and Liem put his finger on his throat to take his pulse.

‘What is it?’ asked Travis.

‘A hundred and sixty,’ replied Liem, proudly.

‘Not bad. The hamstrings are fine, but we’ll really feel it in our calves when we start our descent.’

‘You’re not even going to look down?’ Franck gestured towards the panorama, or at least what you could see of it through the trees. Liem and Travis hadn’t realised that they were at the very top of a chasm, looking out over the thick vegetation of a sort of limestone crater. They could see the glimmer of the metal cage at the bottom through the greenery. The sun was beating directly down on the igue, giving the metal an unexpected brilliance.

‘Now that, that is insane … I know you, Franck. You must have something in mind if you’re showing us this. Is it a set?’

‘No, it’s for you. It’s not for anything, it’s just so you enjoy the walk …’

There was still a good five minutes to go, five minutes of trying not to go tumbling down. Franck already knew Liem and Travis would go inside the cage; it was too tempting. They would willingly go and stand in the middle, the only place where you could see the sky at all; they would want to look at the huge barrels and the pool up close. They would walk straight into the lion’s den. He just had to hope the dog would understand that he had to keep them inside, and then he would close the metal gate and secure it with the ropes. They would laugh at first, and then they would stop laughing. They would tell him to stop fooling around. He would make sure that Alpha knew he had to stop them untying the ropes through the bars, and then he would leave them there all night to think, with the dog guarding their prison. Franck knew they wouldn’t sign the new amendments straight away, not without reading them at any rate, and then they would need at least one night, or maybe two, before giving in and begging him to set them free. He wouldn’t release them until he had their signatures.