By then the task force had donned their parachute suits and helmets and each of them had equipped himself with a C8 carbine, worn vertically on its three-point tactical sling, and ninety rounds of spare ammunition per man in case they met with resistance on the ground. Ben felt perfectly calm and absolutely ready, as though he’d been in training for this just yesterday. Nods, thumbs-up gestures and a few grins and words were exchanged among the others as they ran through a final check of their chute equipment and lined up in single file for the jump. The aircraft’s tailgate yawned open to reveal the night sky and the moonlit landscape 1700 feet below.

A blast of frigid air whistled through the gaping hole. The Humvees were released first, sliding back on their angled ramps and spinning away end over end out of the tailgate, first one then the other. Five thousand kilos of armoured metal hurtling downwards through the night. Moments later, the signal came for the parachutists to follow. Ben was fourth in line. When his turn came to jump, he stepped towards the black abyss and let himself fall into the void without the least hesitation. Then it was the long, long, spiralling descent, followed by the jerk and crackle of the parachute opening. The dark ground came looming rapidly up towards him, closer and closer; then he hit and rolled as he’d done a hundred times before, and he was safely down. Three men on the ground before him, followed by the last four, their dark shapes landing with soft thuds and the canopies of their chutes settling down around them and rippling in the cold wind, the material black for minimum night visibility by any potential enemy.

Ben and the team waited for several long minutes in absolute silence, poised with their weapons at the ready and scanning the ground all around them for anything that moved, until the rumble of the aircraft had completely diminished. In the pale moonlight the seemingly infinite rocky landscape looked like the lunar surface, except for the tall mountains whose snowy upper peaks glittered in the distance.

On Buchanan’s signal, the eight men quickly secured their chutes and then went jogging over the barren terrain to retrieve the dropped Humvees and kit pods. To everyone’s relief, both vehicles had survived the landing intact. It was impossible to hide the drop crates. They would just have to hope that by the time the enemy found them and raised the alarm, the mission would already be accomplished.