‘It’s been our latest project,’ Twigg said, the words gushing out of him. ‘To rediscover the site of Zakara. You see, Mr Cahill, her father, our company founder, spent decades searching for it, but in the end the political situation there just made it impossible to carry out any kind of proper excavations. First the Russians invaded, and he had to get out in a hurry. Then ten years later the Russians left, and he went back there hoping he’d be able to carry on, but he had more problems. The region was so unsettled that soon afterwards he had to abandon his plans again, and what with one thing after another the place has been too hot to go near ever since.’

Ben listened impatiently. A potted history of old man Cahill’s exploits in Afghanistan wasn’t what he needed to hear right now, fascinating as it might be. ‘Okay. And Madison?’

‘A couple months ago she got it into her head to travel out there and take up where her father left off. She was convinced that the situation there was pretty stable, with our troops still in place and the Taliban under control. We knew about the coming pull-out, but everybody thought it would happen slowly. Well, not everybody. I warned her it wasn’t safe. But you know Madison. Once she latches onto something, she won’t let go. And now look what’s happened, and she’s stuck right in the middle of it.’

‘What’s Zakara?’

‘It’s a lost city. Incredibly ancient and terribly important. It dates back all the way to—’

‘Whatever,’ said Ben, for whom ancient lost cities were of little interest even at the best of times. ‘More to the point, where is it?’

‘A long way from anywhere, deep in a place called the Bamiyan Valley. There are no towns or cities anywhere nearby, nothing except maybe a few small villages.’ Twigg paused. ‘But that’s not where she went missing, as far as we know. She was in Kabul for a couple of weeks, hooking up with some contacts there and getting things organised for the expedition out to the Zakara site.’

‘So she went missing in Kabul?’

‘Maybe. We don’t know.’

‘You keep saying you don’t know.’

‘That’s because we truly don’t.’

‘Okay,’ Ben said. ‘She was in Kabul. Was she alone there? Did she travel with anyone else?’

‘She usually goes places on her own, when it’s just a scouting expedition like this was. I guess I could have gone with her, being her personal assistant. But she’s got her own way of doing things, you know?’