'LOOK, LET'S TALK about this.'

Purna's voice was calm, her manner relaxed. She allowed the barrel of her gun to droop a little and glanced casually at Sam, Logan and Xian Mei to indicate they should do the same.

By contrast the man looked twitchy, nervous. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead, and the knife was clenched so tightly in his right hand that the points of his knuckles were white with tension. He gave another clenched-teeth grin and shook his head.

'Don't need to talk,' he said. 'You just need to drop your fucking guns or I swear I'll kill her.'

Purna sighed. 'You know we can't do that.'

The prisoner stared at her bug-eyed. 'You can and you fucking will.'

'See, the thing is,' said Purna reasonably, 'if we let you have our guns, what's to stop you killing us all anyway? What's your name?'

The question seemed to throw the man. 'What do you want to know that for?' he snapped.

'Just trying to be friendly. I think we can help each other out here.'

'Don't need your help,' the man said, his voice high-pitched with tension. Suddenly he screamed at them, 'Now drop your fucking weapons or I'll kill the bitch!'

'Whoa,' said Sam. 'Take it easy, man.' Moving slowly he placed his gun on the floor. 'There you go.'

Purna glanced at him, tight-lipped. 'Sam, what are you doing?'

Sam looked across at her angrily and gestured towards the shaking and clearly terrified Jin. 'Don't you think she's been through enough?'

'We've all been through a lot,' said Purna. 'This isn't the way to do it.'

Ignoring her, Sam said to the man, 'OK, buddy, here's the deal. We lay down our weapons and back off a little, and you let Jin go. Then we talk. What do you say?'

The man stared at him, eyes narrowed, suspicious.

'I'm guessing you're trapped in here because of those things out there?' Sam pointed towards the thuds and groans coming from behind the barred metal doors on the far side of the room.

'Keep talking,' the man said.

'We can help you with that. We can kill those fuckers for you. How you think we got in here in the first place?'

'In fact,' said Xian Mei, 'you can leave right now if you want to. The doors are open and the yard is clear. The infected that were out there are all dead.'

The man shot her a contemptuous look. 'Yeah, and go where? There's an electric fence out there and then two miles of mined ocean, if you hadn't fucking noticed.'

'So what's your plan?' asked Logan.

The man hesitated, then to their surprise the question was answered by a voice on the far side of the room.

'I'm thinking maybe we should hear your plan first.'

They turned to see a man rising from behind the row of steel serving units off to their left. Another prisoner, this man was tall and skinny, his inquisitive fox-like face and dark-framed spectacles giving him a studious air. In contrast to his colleague with the knife he seemed calm and composed, though Sam got the immediate impression that beneath his cool exterior his mind was working away, that even now he was assessing the situation and how best to turn it to his advantage.

The man with the knife gaped at the skinny guy. 'What the fuck you doing? What you showing yourself for?'

The skinny guy shot the knife-man an almost dismissive look. 'I thought an exchange of information might be mutually beneficial.'

'But we coulda got their guns!' protested the knife-man.

The skinny guy smirked and jerked his head at Purna. 'That one would never have given up her gun. She's too pragmatic for that. And too ruthless.' He gave a thin smile. 'I'm right, aren't I?'

Instead of answering his question, Purna asked, 'Are there just the two of you?'

The man smiled again, as if this was not a tense stand-off between two groups of desperate people, but simply a game of strategy. Glancing down to either side of him, he murmured, 'Gentlemen?'

Bemusedly, bad-temperedly, more men in orange overalls began to rise up on both sides of the skinny guy three on his right and four on his left, making nine prisoners in all.

'Do you want us to put up our hands?' the skinny guy asked mildly.

Again Purna ignored him. Glancing to her right she said pointedly, 'Xian Mei, check there's no one else hiding down there. They could be keeping a couple of men in reserve. We wouldn't want to be lulled into a false sense of security, would we?'

The skinny guy chuckled as Xian Mei nodded and moved forward.

'Do I need to say that if anyone tries to grab Xian Mei's gun I'll shoot them?' Purna added.

The skinny guy looked amused. 'No. I don't think you do.'

'All clear,' Xian Mei called a few seconds later.

'Good,' said Purna. 'In that case, gentlemen, I think we'll have you out here. Why not make yourselves comfortable at one of these tables so we can chat?'

The men resentfully shuffled out from behind the counter and sat at the table she had indicated. When they were all seated, the skinny guy nodded at the knife-man and said, 'You asked my friend his name earlier.'

Purna nodded. 'He was reluctant to give it.'

'He's cripplingly shy,' said the skinny guy, 'whereas I am not. My name's Kevin. I won't embarrass either of us by offering you my hand. So what's your name?' He gave Purna a piercing look.

'Purna,' she told him.

'Purna.' He rolled the word around in his mouth as though tasting it. 'That's a new one on me.'

'It's Australian,' she said. 'I'm half Aborigine.'

'How exotic,' said Kevin. 'So tell me, Purna, why are you and your friends here?'

Purna looked at him for a long moment, as though deciding what if anything she should tell him. Then she said, 'We were contacted by a man called Ryder White. He told us that if we could make our way to this island, he could get access to a helicopter and get us all out of here.'

Kevin regarded her shrewdly. 'Why should White help you?'

'His wife's sick,' replied Sam. 'We got something for him.'

'Oh? And what's that?'

'A vaccine. We hope,' said Purna.

'You hope?'

'It hasn't been properly tested,' she admitted.

'We had a whole bunch of stuff going on at the time,' added Logan. 'We just never got round to it.'

Kevin glanced at the other prisoners, who were sitting stoically, allowing him to do the talking. 'Maybe we can help each other,' he said.

'No offence, but how can you help us?' said Sam.

'I'm pretty sure Ryder White will be holed up in Sector Seven,' Kevin said.

Xian Mei nodded. 'Sector Seven, yes. That's where he said we had to make for.'

'In that case, I can show you the way there,' said Kevin, 'though in return I'd need a guarantee from you that as part of the deal for the vaccine you get White to agree to safe passage for myself and my friends off the island. As things stand, we're trapped in here and rapidly running out of food and water, and no one seems to know or care. From the little I've been able to glean, I gather the situation on Banoi isn't much better in which case I doubt we'll be high on anyone's list of priorities.'

'We don't need you to show us the way,' said Sam. 'We got Ryder White to do that.'

Kevin sighed. 'In that case, let me put it another way. If you don't help us I'll order Rafa there to cut your friend's throat.'

'He does that, we'll shoot the lot of you,' retorted Logan.

Kevin raised his eyebrows. 'Will you really? You'd be prepared to gun down nine men in cold blood? If so, then frankly you'd be doing us a favour. Better to die quickly in a hail of bullets than slowly from starvation.'

Purna sighed. 'No one needs to die. You described me as ruthless earlier, but I wouldn't leave you to starve to death. You have my word on that.'

'Your word,' said Kevin. 'Well, that's wonderful. I'm sure that has set all our minds at rest.'

A couple of the prisoners sniggered.

'Why not ring White now?' Xian Mei suggested.

'Yeah, do the deal so everyone can hear,' added Logan.

Purna shrugged, took out her phone and punched in White's number. All that came through, however, was static. She tried again with the same result.

'Shit, I can't get through,' she said.

'How convenient,' mocked Kevin.

'So how's he gonna help you get through to Sector Seven now?' one of the other prisoners said snidely.

Purna glanced at him. 'He's monitoring our progress on CCTV, unlocking doors for us as we reach them.'

Kevin looked thoughtful. Finally he said, 'All righty, here's what's going to happen. We'll keep your friend there as insurance just in case you decide to run out on us. Don't worry, she won't come to any harm. You have my personal guarantee on that.'

Hearing his words, Jin whimpered. Sam said, 'No way. She's coming with us.'

Kevin raised his hands and said mildly, 'Now come on, be reasonable. Do you honestly think-'

'Fuck reasonable!' barked Sam.

Raising a hand to take the heat out of the exchange, Purna explained, 'We tried that once before. It didn't work out for any of the parties concerned.'

Kevin sighed. 'If this particular girl is the issue, then we'll happily take that one.' He nodded at Yerema.

'No way.' Sam shook his head. 'We all stay together. No one gets left behind.'

Kevin pursed his lips, his brow furrowing slightly as if he were puzzling out a tricky conundrum. 'In that case, that leaves only one alternative.'

'Oh yeah? And what's that?' said Logan.

'I'll tag along personally. Make sure you do the deed.'

There was a rumble of discontent among the prisoners sitting around the table. One, a heavy-set black man with elaborate swirls shaved into the stubble at the side of his head, said, 'What good that do? Soon as you leave this room, they shoot you dead.'

Kevin shook his head, his eyes never leaving Purna's. 'No,' he said quietly, 'I really don't think they will. This one is the most dangerous, but she's not dishonest. In fact, she's a woman of honour.'

'How you know that?' said the black man.

Kevin flashed a smile that was almost charming. 'I'm an excellent judge of character.'

'What about the crazies?' said another of the prisoners, a raddled, balding man in his fifties with a prominent Adam's apple.

'What do you think these are?' Logan said, brandishing his gun. 'Designer accessories?'

'There're too many of those things out there,' said a rat-like man with spiky yellow hair. 'They bite you, they even drool on you, you're fucked, dude.'

'Not us,' said Sam. 'We're immune.' He rolled up the leg of his jeans, peeled back the bandage on his calf and showed them his bite. 'Check it out.'

There were murmurs both of wonder and disquietude. 'You all immune?' said the big black guy.

'All except for Jin,' said Purna. 'Speaking of which ...'

'Oh, of course. Sorry,' said Kevin. He raised a hand and flicked a finger. 'Unhand the young lady please, Rafa.'

Rafa did so, albeit reluctantly, and Jin gasped and dashed forward, all but collapsing into Xian Mei's arms.

'I don't think this is a good idea,' Rafa muttered.

'Yes, well, thinking's never been your strong suit, has it, Rafa?' Kevin said, eliciting a few titters from the other men.

He stood up slowly, then clapped his hands together and smiled, like a vicar contemplating a church outing.

'Right then,' he said. 'Shall we go?'