‘I did what I did,’ Ben said. ‘I’m not a hero. And I’m not a superman. I can’t work miracles. The people I helped were mostly in Europe. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Britain. Not in exploding war zones that are almost totally inaccessible from the outside. They were taken by gangs of opportunistic crooks who hid them in cellars, attics, outhouses, and had a financial vested interest in keeping them alive. Not by whole regiments of heavily armed fanatics who have no interest in keeping their enemies alive for a single moment, and won’t hesitate to butcher them on the spot. I had the advantage of surprise, and time was usually on my side. I could slip in, get the victims out and get them home. Sometimes I was able to call on contacts and connections to help me do that. That’s how one man on his own can make a difference. But in Afghanistan, you’d need an army. One that’s a hell of a lot bigger than all the US military combined, and a damn sight better led. You saw what happened to them.’

‘You’re saying it can’t be done.’

Ben said, ‘I know how you’re feeling, hearing this. I feel the same way, believe me. But you have to be realistic. Even if a lone operator like me was able to reach the Afghan border and slip through the Taliban lines to go searching for one missing person in six hundred thousand square kilometres of mountain wilderness swarming with dedicated enemy forces; even if I was able to track her movements and find where she might have gone, there’s extremely little chance I’d find her before they do. And a very real possibility that, after eight days, she’s already one of the many people they’ve caught and murdered.’

‘Oh. Christ.’

‘I’m sorry. It’s bad. I feel like shit telling you these things. But that’s how it is. Trust me. I have seen quite a bit of action in Afghanistan and it’s not a good place to be. Not when something like this happens. And this current situation looks to be worse than anything I ever experienced there.’

‘Is there nothing we can do?’ Twigg pleaded.

‘Pray that she might have managed to slip out of the country,’ Ben replied. ‘If she’d headed southeast from Kabul, it’s only a few hundred kilometres to the Pakistan border. She’s tough and resourceful. If she was able to make her way to Peshawar, or maybe even to Islamabad, she’d be sure to find help there and contact us. I swear to you that I’d be on the first plane out there.’

‘Pray,’ Twigg said. ‘That’s your best advice?’