The question hung in the air. Hector seemed to have no answer. He walked over to the window and looked out over the parade ground. From his position by the desk Max could see Woody and Angel waiting for the other recruits.

‘I remember the first badging ceremony,’ Hector said. ‘Your father presented the first team of Special Forces Cadets with their challenge coins. Of the original five, three are dead. Killed on operations before the age of seventeen.’ He turned to look at Max again. ‘Don’t take it so hard, son. Life as a Special Forces Cadet is uniquely dangerous. Ask Jack.’

‘I don’t need to ask Jack,’ Max fumed. ‘I was there, remember? Disarming the bombs, fronting up to the terrorists …’

‘And yesterday, you failed selection. Those tests were created by your dad, Max. They were designed to identify the most capable candidates. The candidates most suited for the kind of operations the Special Forces Cadets will be sent on. The candidates most likely to stay alive.’

‘But today –’

‘Today you did well. Yesterday you failed an exercise because you tripped on a piece of paracord. Special Forces Cadets have to be at the top of their game every day.’ He turned his back on Max and looked out of the window again. ‘Green Thunder will return you to Newcastle this evening. We won’t meet again.’

The conversation was over. That much was clear. Max looked at the box on the table. He almost didn’t take it. Somehow he felt that the medals would just be a reminder of a life that could never be his. But he knew he would regret not taking the photos. He scooped up the box and headed to the door.

He was halfway there when he stopped.

‘I never told you it was paracord,’ he said quietly.

There was no reply.

Max turned. Hector was still looking out of the window at the parade ground, where the sun was setting.

‘I told you I tripped,’ he said. ‘That was all.’

‘You’re mistaken,’ Hector said. But he sounded unsure.

‘No, I’m not. There was a length of paracord stretched between two trees, and one of Lukas’s chewing-gum wrappers on the ground. I decided not to mention it because I didn’t want to grass on Lukas.’ Max narrowed his eyes. ‘But you already know that, don’t you? Don’t you?’

Hector neither replied nor moved.

‘Why did you do it?’ Max breathed. ‘Why did you set me up to fail?’