‘How long do we have?’ she was saying, leaning close and speaking loud to be heard over the engine noise and the crash and rattle of the suspension. Ben had been so lost in thought that his mind was stupid and blank for a moment, like someone woken from a deep sleep. ‘How long do we have before what?’ he replied ominously.

‘Before we get there, dummy,’ she replied, nudging him with her fist. ‘Where we’re going, or had you forgotten? Where this Christian mission is, or was. What’s it called, anyway?’

‘Why do you want to know?’ Ben asked. In fact he was playing for time, unable to remember its name.

‘Because I like knowing things,’ she said.

‘It’s called Gurghazar,’ Holt replied for him.

‘“Gurghazar”?’Madison repeated.

‘That’s what it’s called on the map,’ Holt said. He spelled it, ‘G-u-r-g-h-a-z-a-r,’ saying ‘zee’ for ‘zed’ in the American way.

Madison sounded incredulous. ‘No way. You’re kidding. Gurghazar?’

Ben asked her, ‘Why the surprise? You know the place?’

‘Of course not,’ she replied testily. ‘Like I told you, I’ve never been to this country in my life before. I’m beginning to think that once would’ve been enough.’

‘So what’s the big deal with Gurghazar?’

‘I don’t know the place,’ she explained patiently, or as patiently as it was possible for anyone to sound raising their voice to a near-shout while being violently jostled up and down and from side to side in a truck travelling far too fast for the off-road conditions. ‘But Dad did. He talked about it a lot. It was another of his many obsessions when it came to the history of ancient Bactria.’

‘What’s so special about it?’ Holt said, in a surly tone. ‘You talking about the orphanage?’

‘No, I never heard of that before either,’ she shot back. The hardness in her eyes when she talked to Holt made it clear she didn’t like him much.

Holt said, ‘Far as I know, apart from some tiny backwater village, the orphanage is the only thing there.’

Madison shook her head. ‘If it’s not been there for thousands of years, Dad wouldn’t have taken any interest in it. I’m talking about the fabled caves nearby where Alexander’s men were said to have been forced to shelter in the terrible winter while they were pursuing Bessus through the mountains.’

‘Here we go with the history crap again,’ Holt said. Maybe he didn’t like Madison much either.