'Yep. AKA Jelly. Agree he would not be a target; he's had IQ problems since birth.' Gabriel continued soaping pots. 'He came up as an a.s.sociate when we were looking into Nader.'

'Anyway,' Jill continued, 'I got Jelly to introduce me to Kasem and I was invited over to his house in Merrylands.'

'The Nader house?'

'Yep.'

Gabriel gave a low whistle. 'What was that like?'

'Nothing remarkable,' she said. Except that my frigging sister was there. 'No sign of any criminal activity that I could see. Of course, that is his parents' house. They were overseas.' She kicked her shoes off and they dropped to the floor. Ten gave her a haughty look; went back to cleaning. 'So,' she said, 'I had nothing else until I got a little more intel from two small-bit locals. They say they buy their stuff from a couple of blokes named Aga.s.si and Urgill. So, I followed it up and, yesterday, I see these guys at the Station Hotel, shaking hands with Nader.'

'So?'

'So, it looked like a business shake, if you know what I mean.'

'Yeah. Worth a look.'

Gabriel finished the last pot.

'Want a hand?' she asked. Big smile.

He threw a tea towel at her head. 'Let's go,' he said.

They moved into the lounge room and Gabriel took the armchair. Jill dropped down onto the couch. 'Aren't we going to do some searching?' she said.

'I thought first I'd give you what I have on ATS in the area.' ATS. Amphetamine type stimulants. The acronym used by those who worked in this field all the time.

'How do you know so much about amphetamines?' she said.

'I did some work with the ACC,' Gabriel told her.

Phew. The Australian Crime Commission, a statutory body headed up by the Commissioner of the Federal Police. The head honchos. Their brief: to draw together all arms of law enforcement and intelligence-gathering in order to battle organised crime. Jill knew that the ACC were conducting a special intelligence operation into Amphetamine Type Stimulant production in the AsiaPacific region. She'd guessed that the findings from her current job would get back to these people eventually, but she knew she was just a grunt in the trenches to the ACC.

'So, you want some history first?' he asked.

Jill reached out to the coffee table for the bar of chocolate. She broke off a few squares and threw the rest over to Gabriel. She tucked her feet up underneath her and said, 'Go.'

'Well, believe it or not, ephedrine, the key ingredient in amphetamines, dates back to 2760 BC,' he said. 'It was used in Chinese medicine. Westerners cottoned on to it in the late nineteenth century; and when they got worried they'd run out of the natural supply, they synthesised it. Doctors tried it as a treatment for pretty much everything, but it got its biggest roll-out in World War II. All sides wanted their soldiers to have a little extra firepower.'

Gabriel ate a piece of chocolate. 'Anyway,' he said and then his face contorted in a grimace. He reached for a tissue and wiped his mouth. 'What is that?'

'Chilli chocolate,' she said.

'Oh,' he said, and snapped off another piece, popped it into his mouth. Jill smiled.

'When the war ended,' he continued, 'the supply was dumped into the civilian market. j.a.pan was flooded with the stuff and they reckon up to one and a half million j.a.panese were abusing it. Governments around the world started cracking down, and made it prescription-only, but enough was still leaking out to make it uninteresting to major crime. There was the demand, but plenty of supply, therefore little profit. That was until the seventies, when the rates of amphetamine psychosis around the world were becoming a pain in the a.r.s.e, and governments got serious.'

He reached for the chocolate and broke off another row. 'Good s.h.i.t, this,' he said, wiggling his eyebrows. 'Anyway, you're as up to date as me with recent history. When supply dried up, organised crime got involved,' he continued, after swallowing. 'In Australia, it's mostly been about outlaw motorcycle gangs, as you know.'

Gabriel knew that Jill had received a promotion and a lot of cred when she'd been instrumental in shutting down a bikie meth lab in Wollongong.

'And your current corner of the world looks to be quite the hotspot,' he said.

'Yep, plenty to go around out there, that's for sure.'

Gabriel divided the rest of the bottle of red between their gla.s.ses. The merlot was spicy and delicious. Jill took a sip, savouring the wine. Her lips tingled from the chilli in the chocolate, and she sank back into the lounge. She felt relaxed for the first time in months.

Gabriel repositioned the lounge cushion behind him so that he could also recline a little. He swung his legs up over one of the arms of the chair and leaned into the crook of the other. 'We're predicting trouble at the moment with our neighbours,' he said. 'The AFP is pretty sure that there's a sizeable clan lab set up in one of the Pacific islands, supplying Australia with a great deal of a few of the precursors used to manufacture ice.'

'The Pacific islands?' said Jill. 'I'm surprised. I mean, I knew that Southeast Asia was a problem . . .'

'Yeah, didn't you hear about that clan lab busted in Fiji a few months back? One of the biggest ever found in the world,' he said. 'Enough precursors in there to pump out five hundred to a thousand kilos of crystal meth a week.'

Jill whistled.

'Yep, a s.h.i.tload,' he said. 'It would have been devastating over here. We got another big bust in 2006 in Malaysia. It was in a shampoo factory. They could've cooked sixty kilos of ice a day. In each case, Australians were in on the syndicate. The crims know that Aussies are cashed-up and will pay a lot more than users in other parts of Asia, so big traffickers want in on this market. And because a lot of the Pacific islands have s.h.i.t customs controls, they're perfect for factory-scale production.'

Jill sat up on the couch and put her empty gla.s.s on the table. 'It would make sense if there's a big lab in production,' she said. 'I mean, we're pulling in a lot of dealers, but there's just so much out there. Someone's got a big operation going on.' She paused, thinking about the addicts who lived near her. 'It does such a lot of damage,' she said.

'Even in ways you maybe wouldn't necessarily think of,' Gabriel agreed. 'I mean, did you know that the current rise of HIV in Australia is linked to amphetamine use? Everyone's loved-up and ready to party and they're doing it several times a night and never with a condom.'

'It's the little kids that get to me,' Jill said. 'Since I've been undercover I've had to call DoCS at least once a week. The f.u.c.kers get so violent when they're coming down off ice, and the kids are in the middle of it all.'

'It's gotta be pretty hard out there, huh?' said Gabriel.

'There's so much screaming,' she said. 'You wouldn't believe the shouting at night. Never fail, there's a major domestic every single night.'

'Yeah? You getting tired of it?'

'Well, I was tired of it the first day,' she said. 'But I'm not ready to stop yet, if that's what you mean. It doesn't feel right to.'

There was silence for a few beats. Jill let her hand drop, and absentmindedly stroked Ten, who punched her whiskery cheeks into her ankles, tail held high.

'You know,' said Gabriel, watching his cat headb.u.t.ting Jill's hand, 'I worked for a while with a guy who got posted to East Timor. Good bloke. But he came back from deployment and couldn't settle down to things again in Australia. Told me he felt guilty just living life over here while people were suffering back there. In the end, he dropped out of everything. Quit the feds. Went back.'

Ten did some yoga poses on the carpet, angling for a tummy rub. Jill tickled her with a toe. She didn't speak.

'So what's with the drinking?' Gabriel said.

'With the what?'

'You and the wine. That's new.'

'A bottle of wine with dinner. Well, half a bottle. You drank the rest. What's with your drinking?'

'Why are you so defensive?'

'Why are you asking me these questions?'

'Just saying what I see. You're the one getting upset about it.'

'I'm not upset!' she said, standing and moving towards the balcony. When she slid open the door the night blasted in with a flurry of wind, billowing the curtains around her. The leaves of the huge tree outside churned and spun; the sound like a thousand rattlesnakes. The draught blew right through her and she hugged her arms around her waist. She slid the door closed, and turned to face Gabriel. 'I have to drink with them,' she said. 'A lot.'

He waited.

'I try to keep the amount down, but now I find myself looking for it.'

'How much?' he said.

'How much do I look for it, or how much am I drinking?'

'Whichever.'

'Well, I guess it's not that much, really,' she said. 'A couple of gla.s.ses a night, I guess. I try to go a day a week without any. It's just that I hate to be out of control with anything. I had a problem with alcohol when I was a teenager. I stopped completely, so I worry that even a bit is excessive.'

'Sounds like you're doing great,' he said after a pause.

'Why's that?' She lifted her head, looked him in the eye.

'Well, you are deeply embedded in a prime operational position, and you're doing excellent work, according to your boss,' he said. 'You are definitely out of your comfort zone, and you haven't gone crazy. Nothing terrible has happened.'

Gabriel was one of the very few people who knew that Jill had been kidnapped. She exhaled hard, realising she had been holding her breath.

'Thanks, Gabe,' she said.

'I made vodka affogato for dessert,' he said. 'But I probably shouldn't serve it to a p.i.s.spot like you.'

Who'd have thought it? An entire outfit for eighty dollars. Seren didn't imagine that many would consider a single blouse an entire outfit. She didn't either, really. But Christian would not be complaining.

The blouse had been on sale. Back at the unit, she shook it from its tissue-wrap and draped it across her bed. She stood back, arms folded and stared. Did she dare?

It was A-line, pale blue chiffon. The bodice was opaque, the long sleeves cuffed at the wrists, full and sheer. It fell to just past her bottom. It would look amazing with her black pants.

Seren slipped into her outfit for the evening. Underwear. The Blouse. The Shoes. Perfume.

Not a st.i.tch else.

Thank G.o.d Marco was staying at Angel's tonight, where there was a DVD player and the biggest movie collection he'd ever seen. Seren wasn't sure that even a ten-year-old could believe a waitress would wear this to work.

'So what's your objective with the search?' Gabriel sat at one terminal, waiting for her answer. Jill perched in front of another. The overhead light was not switched on in Gabriel's computer room, but the s.p.a.ce glowed regardless. Grey-green monitors waited, thinking quietly; deep-blue LED lights were spattered across every surface, as though flicked from a luminous paintbrush; winking red eyes oversaw everything.

Jill began typing on the keyboard in front of her. 'General fishing expedition,' she said. 'If you could gather up the stuff you guys have already collected on Nader, I'll go wide, find whatever else I can.'

'Sounds like a plan,' he said.

They worked quietly for a while, scanning the databases. Jill had learned on a previous case that she could gain access to more information in Gabriel's workstation than from the standard copshop computers. He had open access to records and systems that were off-limits to even detectives in the regular police force; at least without filing a c.r.a.pload of paperwork first.

'Don't bother with his sheet,' said Gabriel after a ten-minute silence, other than the quiet clicking of their keyboards. 'I've just sent a condensed version to you. He's a great guy. We've got abduction, extortion, a.s.sault, standover charges. Zero for drugs. And in the past two years, it looks like nothing's stuck. There's not anything big pending, either.'

'Let's see if we can change that for him, shall we?' Jill said. She scrolled further through a site in front of her, and then called up another, highlighting text every now and then. 'You know what's interesting?' she said, her eyes still on the screen.

'What?' Gabriel asked.

'Well, I've just been looking at pa.s.sports. Mr Nader was telling me the truth when he said that his parents are overseas at the moment. Lebanon. Been there once or even twice a year for the past ten, as far as I can see.'

'So?'

'Well, it seems Kasem's not so interested in his relatives.'

'Neither am I.'

'Yeah, but Kasem doesn't mind travelling, generally. It's just that he prefers other destinations.' Jill finally turned away from the screen, swivelled to face Gabriel, who watched her, waiting. 'Our boy's been taking island holidays,' she said. 'Papua New Guinea. Short stops, up to a week or so: five times last year, four already this year.'

'Shopping for real estate?' said Gabriel.

'Or a business,' said Jill.

32.

Tuesday 9 April, night.

Oh f.u.c.k. f.u.c.k! Not a great way to begin.

The intruder balled the bleeding hand into a fist and wrapped it in the tea towel the fabric that was supposed to protect it when punching out the window to Seren's flat.

The right hand, too. Useless now.

f.u.c.ken b.i.t.c.h. Another f.u.c.ken thing to hate her for. Stuck up, pretty little s.l.u.t.

The intruder stalked through Seren's shadowy unit.

33.

Tuesday 9 April, night.

Seren scrunched as far into the corner of the cab as possible, her bag covering as much of her bare legs as she could manage. Although she closed her eyes, she could still feel the cabbie gawking at her through his rear-vision mirror. She felt stretched, tissue-paper thin, as though one more set of hungry eyes would stab right through her skin, make her bleed. The attention tonight had been excruciating; feigning indifference to it, exhausting.