It took less than an hour to reach the source of the smoke. As they approached, Ben saw that he’d been right about people needing help. This had been no skirmish between rival tribal forces. The village, little more than a few clusters of centuries-old sandstone houses amid a gridwork of tiny narrow streets encircled by a wall, had been razed almost completely to the ground. There wasn’t a man in their team who hadn’t witnessed scenes like it before, but the extent of the carnage was a shocking sight. Some of the bloodied, twisted bodies that lay scattered outside the ruined village walls were those of women and the little children they’d been clutching in their arms as they fled panic-stricken from their attackers, before they were gunned down. Several houses that were still standing or only partly destroyed were still on fire, others smouldering heaps of burnt-out debris. The raiders had even slaughtered the village’s livestock and blown up the well where they fetched their precious water.

Ben was the first to step through the crumbled walls and lay eyes on the even worse slaughter that had taken place inside. The village streets were littered with spent cartridge cases and ran red in places with the blood of the victims. The wails of grief and the screams of the maimed and dying were a sound you never could get used to – unless you happened to be the kind of crazed psychopath who could run amok through an innocent community, killing indiscriminately, the old and the young alike.

It was easy enough to guess who had done this. And there was little anyone could do to help these poor people. As he stood there gazing around him with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, Ben became aware of Wolf standing at his shoulder.

‘Still don’t hate them, Ben?’ Wolf muttered. ‘Not even a little bit?’

Ben said nothing. They walked through the ravaged streets in silence. Among the dead lying about was a single Taliban fighter, slumped against a wall still clutching his brand-new American rifle. Wolf gave him a nudge with the toe of his boot, but he was definitely dead. ‘Shame you can only kill them once,’ Wolf said.