They were in the kitchen. There was a mud stove and beside it four women huddled together, a high stack of flat nan bread beside them, ready for the guests visiting the miracle boy. One nan was on the fire, burnt black. The women were too scared to move, letting the bread smoke. Machine-gun fire surrounded them. Leo crouched by the fire, sliding the burnt nan off the stove, regarding the four Afghan women carefully for the first time. One of them wasn’t a woman but a young girl, perhaps only seven or eight years old. The girl’s head was almost totally bald except for the odd clumps of hair twisted by heat. Her scalp was red and raw. There were burn marks on her face, burns to her hands. Slowly Leo began to question the things he’d seen. How could the boy’s hair have been burnt off by the fire without any damage to his skin? Miracles aside, there was no logic to the boyrsquo;s appearance. Leo had encountered many men, women and children who’d survived scenes of devastation and none of them looked like the boy – they looked like this girl. He realized the boy’s hair had been shaved. His appearance had been altered. He’d been dressed to fit the part. If there had only been one survivor, it hadn’t been the boy – it had been this girl. Her place had been substituted for a young man, perhaps someone the villagers hoped would grow into a warrior, or a symbol that could be taken from village to village. They would not have been able to use a girl in that way. The miracle needed to be a boy in order to be a miracle they could exploit. Leo glanced at Nara’s expression. She’d come to the same conclusion.

From outside, the captain called their names. Leo raised a single finger to his lips. By the dim light of the stove Nara gave no response, standing still, her face obscured by the smoke rising from the burnt nan bread. Surely she understood the captain would kill this girl as he had killed the boy. The gender of the child was irrelevant.

The captain shouted out:

—We’re leaving!

Leo moved to the door, gesturing for Nara to follow. She didn’t move, speaking in broken Russian, calling:

—Captain Vashchenko, there is something you need to see.

Same Day

Not knowing why he’d been called, the captain entered the kitchen cautiously, his gun raised, expecting a trap. Stunned by Nara’s decision and convinced she didn’t understand the consequences of her actions, Leo tried to hurry them out, offering Nara a second chance to save the girl.

—Let’s go.