But from all the grim faces it was clear that nobody shared Aziz’s optimism, genuine or not. To Ben, it felt like a reprise of the moment they’d arrived at Zakara and found nothing but emptiness and desolation there. This time around, it seemed pretty damned unlikely that Francine and her forty orphans were going to suddenly come running out from the ruins to greet them. He was getting a sinking feeling deep in his gut that told him they’d come here for nothing.

The hard, stony ground was littered with shell casings and bits of machine gun belt linkage. Picking up a spent cartridge, Ben saw the bottlenecked case was still untarnished and quite fresh. Meanwhile Wolf had moved off down the hill and was squatting down to carefully examine the many crisscrossed vehicle tracks in the dirt while there was still enough light to make them out. In the SAS, Wolf had been the best tracker Ben had ever worked with, able to read a bent blade of grass or a dislodged pebble like a guidebook.

‘How many troops were here, Jaden?’ Ben called over to him.

Wolf stood up and dusted his hands as he walked back up the hill to join them, his eyes narrowed against the sun. ‘Hard to say. Tracks have been blown over by the wind. A lot, that’s for sure.’

‘Let’s hope they don’t come back in a hurry,’ Madison said.

‘If they do, we’ll be ready for ’em,’ Baldacci said with a nasty leer, and patted his M4.

‘But not before we get our job done,’ Holt said, repeating his mantra. ‘That’s what we came here to do, find these kids.’

‘Amen to that,’ said Nielsen.

‘If they’re still here,’ said Liebowitz. ‘Gotta say, guys, if it was me, I wouldn’t have hung around this godforsaken place. I’ll be surprised if we find anything more than a coupla gecko lizards and rat snakes living in these rocks.’

‘We’ll find them,’ Holt said. ‘We have to.’ Those last words sounded as though he needed to convince himself, too.

‘And what if we don’t, man?’ Liebowitz asked him. ‘I mean, I always believed we would. You know that, right? But now we’re here …’ His voice trailed off.

Holt made no reply, and turned toward the truck. Ben could see the strain playing on the man, and felt pity for him. Holt had put all his hopes and energy into this rescue mission. The thought of it coming to nothing must be especially tough for him to bear.