‘Along with going on doing what you’ve already been doing,’ Ben said. ‘Don’t stop hammering the US Embassy in Qatar. They’re sure to be keeping track of all known movements of refugees out of Afghanistan. If Madison is among them, they’ll have that information. Humanitarian camps are being set up in different places to harbour the flood of people who managed to get out. She could be in one of those.’

‘Then why hasn’t she contacted us already?’

‘Stand by your phone,’ Ben said. ‘She might do just that, at any moment. She could be trying right now, to let you know she’s okay.’

‘But you don’t think it’s likely.’

‘I didn’t say it was impossible.’

‘This isn’t what we thought you were going to tell us. We thought—’

‘I know,’ Ben said. ‘But I won’t lie to you.’

‘And we’re supposed to sit here and just ride it out, fingers crossed and hope for the best? How long before we give up on her being alive? Weeks? Months? And what then? Just shrug our shoulders, put it down to “shit happens” and go on without her? How can we do that?’

Ben said nothing.

‘Madison’s not just our boss. She’s our friend. She built this company back up after her father died, gave us our jobs. We do great things together. She looks after us. We … we love her.’

Ben went on saying nothing. Inside, his spirits sank another notch towards rock bottom.

‘I wish there was some other way,’ Twigg muttered disconsolately. ‘Something else. I don’t know. Something more.’

‘If I can think of one,’ Ben said, ‘you’ll be the first to know. I promise you.’

The call ended soon afterwards, with Twigg almost weeping and Ben not feeling much better. The icy chill of his initial reaction had turned to a boiling rage. He sat there in the empty, silent office for a long time, so stunned he could barely believe what he’d just heard. But if it was true, everything he’d told Twigg was no less so. The odds were overwhelming enough to make this an impossible situation. For all practical purposes, Madison might as well be an astronaut stranded alone on Mars, with no possibility of rescue or resupply.

Yet he’d promised he would try to think of some way he could help her. That’s what he would do.

And that’s what he did do. Try.