Ben looked at him. It seemed the strangest thing for a fellow SAS soldier to come out with, even though Ben himself had been wondering the same thing for a long time.

‘It was that poor kid,’ Meadows said sadly. ‘Watching him die like that. Makes you think, you know? About what you signed up for. What it’s all about. Whether you’re doing the right thing.’

Ben said, ‘Yup.’

Meadows fell back into silence and didn’t speak again. They’d left the highway a few kilometres back, and for the last while the road they’d been following was little more than a dust track with undulating rocky scrubland to both sides, all the way to the foot of the tall mountains in the distance. It was hard to imagine anyone being able to eke a living out of this harsh, unforgiving terrain, but here and there was a small rural holding or farmstead. They’d seen no signs of human habitation at all for a few kilometres when Goffin, up front in the passenger seat next to Saleem, pointed and said, ‘Here we are, folks. Coming up on Ghurdak. Should have eyes on our Humvees any time soon. Yes, there they are.’

Goffin had been right about the place being a sleepy little village. Ghurdak wasn’t quite as desolate as some of the ruined settlements they’d passed through, but nothing much stirred among the low-slung adobe houses. A wind was whistling down from the mountains, blowing up dust in the narrow dirt streets. An old, old woman was herding a line of tired-looking goats along, paying no attention to the group of men stepping out of the two vans. The Humvees were parked between a small house and an ancient dry-stone stable block, empty and waiting for them exactly as planned – but there was no sign of Saleem’s associates who’d brought them here.

‘This is strange,’ said Saleem in Pashto, joined by Mazdak from the second van as the two of them gazed around the buildings in search of their friends. ‘Where did they go?’

The old woman with the goats hurried on past. Something in her step made Ben think she was afraid. He felt a tingle in his spine. His spider-sense warning him something wasn’t right. He glanced at the others. Meadows was looking apprehensive, as though he’d sensed something too. Buchanan was giving orders to start moving the kit from the vans into the Humvees.

‘Never mind them,’ Goffin said dismissively to Saleem. ‘We’re in good time to make our meeting with Faazel. That’s all I care ab—’

Those were the last words ever to come out of Lewis Goffin’s mouth, because in the next moment his head exploded and the blood spray spattered the windows of the van behind him.

And then it started.

Chapter 16