Twigg probably didn’t realise it, but his tone betrayed his intense private relief at having stayed behind in the relative safety of San Diego. He continued, ‘But she wasn’t on her own when she got there, because we had people in Kabul. Our main contact there was a guy called Aziz Qeyami, who was in touch with Mr Cahill over the years. He still works at the Kabul Cultural Heritage Institute.’

Ben grabbed a notepad and pen, and wrote that name down. ‘Go on.’

‘The plan was that he’d travel on with her to the Zakara site, with a small team of others, to check the place out before calling in specialist contractors. Anyhow, she was in regular contact with base the first couple of weeks, and it looked like they were set to head out to the site any time. Then the news broke that the whole situation had suddenly taken a turn for the worse, the troops were pulling out in a real hurry and the Taliban were advancing so fast on the city that everyone was going apeshit. We didn’t hear anything from her in a couple of days, and we were starting to get worried when she called to say things were a little hairy but she was okay and had managed to get a place on a plane out of there. That would have been the last group of US citizens to be evacuated before the doors slammed shut.’

‘And she wasn’t on the plane.’

‘We had a pretty good idea she wouldn’t be. Because the very same day she was meant to leave, just hours before the flight was scheduled, we got another call from her.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She said there’d been a change of plan. Things were going to crap, she was cut off from reaching the airport and she was going to try to get out of the city another way.’

‘Another way, meaning by road?’

‘We don’t know,’ Twigg repeated once again. ‘Her call only lasted a few seconds. Sounded like there was a lot of chaos going on close by. Could have been gunfire, and people yelling in the background. Then the line went totally dead. We tried and tried to call her back, but the cell phone networks must have gone down. Great timing.’

Ben was thinking hard, clutching his phone tight against his ear. ‘So assuming she managed to get out of Kabul, where might she have gone?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Twigg said.

‘Except it’s not, is it? You must have some idea.’

Twigg sighed. ‘I’m not saying this is the case. I’m not even saying it’s likely. But it’s possible, just possible, that she might have decided to try to make her way to the Zakara site.’

‘With the whole country falling apart around her in a violent revolution.’