‘Grab some men,’ Sam told him. ‘There’s lurgies out in that dark forest.’

He wasn’t kidding. There was rainforest everywhere. Who knew what rebels were still out there, wanting to…?

Kill Lily?

It was a dumb thought, brought about by exhaustion, but even so the thought wouldn’t go away. He felt sick.

‘I’ll be careful,’ he told Sam.

‘You want me to come with you and hold your hand?’

‘You’re afraid of the dark.’

‘There is that,’ Sam said peaceably, with just the faintest rueful grin to show Ben wasn’t far off the mark. ‘But for the gorgeous Lily…I’ll risk it.’

‘Look, she’s an old friend and she’s in trouble,’ Ben said, exasperated. ‘Unless you have any more dumb comments, you’re holding me back.’

‘Off you go, then,’ Sam said, standing aside. He’d almost been laughing but as Ben rose from lacing his boots Sam put a hand on his shoulder. There was a long line of grim reminders out the back of the hospital, reminding them both just how serious this situation was.

‘Find her,’ he said.

Dusk had given way to darkness when Ben made it to the road leading to the compound. He’d been hailed three times on the way.

‘Ben, this lady’s got a kid who got badly mosquito bitten while they were hiding.’

‘Ben, I reckon I’m allergic to the water. You got something to settle my stomach?’

And finally the worst, which was: ‘Ben, we’ve found another body. You want to come and take a look before we shift it to the morgue?’

It didn’t make sense, Ben thought. The insurgents had appeared at dawn and had stormed toward the compound, shooting everything in their path. If they’d hoped to achieve pandemonium and terror then they’d succeeded, but in doing so they’d created a situation where the islander’s allies had been forced to act immediately. This reeked of fools’ work, Ben thought grimly, and a hostage situation, negotiating with fools was a nightmare.