‘Some people just have no sense. Or the worst luck. Hope she’ll be OK. You say she’s an archaeologist?’

‘Kind of by default,’ Ben replied. ‘It wasn’t her first career.’

‘What was she before?’

‘A bounty hunter.’

‘Love it,’ Wolf said. ‘What charming people you know.’

‘You can talk. Anyhow, Madison took the family business over from her father, Rigby Cahill. He used to travel all over the world looking for lost treasures. Spent years searching for a lost city in the Bamiyan Valley.’

Wolf raised an eyebrow. ‘A lost city. No kidding. I’m seeing royal palaces, huge great columns, treasure vaults stuffed with priceless relics and chests of diamonds and rubies.’

‘You always were the imaginative one,’ Ben said.

‘Comes to riches, I can imagine quite a bit,’ Wolf replied. ‘So who built this ancient lost city? The Romans? The ancient Egyptians?’

‘Alexander.’

Wolf looked blank. ‘Alexander who?’

‘Alexander the Great,’ Ben said. ‘He was a Greek general. I don’t think the Romans or the Egyptians ever invaded Afghanistan.’

‘Smart move,’ Wolf said with a chuckle. ‘I’m no historian, as you can tell, but it seems to me every other bugger’s tried his luck at it at one time or another, and come to rue the day they ever bothered. No wonder they call the place “the graveyard of empires”.’

‘True enough.’

‘So this Rigby bloke, did he find his lost city?’

Ben nodded. ‘Seems he did. He had to wait until the Russians were gone. But he didn’t get to hang onto it for very long, because then the civil war kicked off. She came here to pick up where he left off.’

‘Good luck with that,’ Wolf said, spitting out a bit of gristle. ‘Couldn’t have picked a worse bloody time.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Speaking of which, we should make tracks. Come and meet the boys, and I’ll fill you in on what’s been happening.’

Chapter 21

After they’d finished clearing up any trace of the fire Wolf led Ben away on a different route from the one he’d taken through the labyrinth of mountain paths, sharing some of his heavy load by carrying the Maximi’s ammo belts and the half-eaten carcass that would now be shared out among Wolf’s mysterious companions.

The long shadows thrown by the setting sun grew darker as the light faded and the moon began to rise over the mountains. The two walked in single file a few strides apart, Ben bringing up the rear with Wolf as point man, the two of them keeping a wary eye open for any sign of an enemy patrol. Ben’s weariness had magically disappeared after a good meal and a sleep. He was ready for the next phase in this strange journey – whatever the hell that might be.