– I bet a few of you thought Sami was never going to make it through selection, right? Too small, too lightweight, too damn nice. Well, let me tell you this: Sami’s one of the toughest guys I’ve ever met, and I’ve met a few. He comes from Syria. His father was a leading anti-government protester. In Syria, that’s a dangerous thing to be. When things went bad in his country, Sami’s family were forced into hiding in the town of Aleppo. Maybe some of you have heard of it. If you look at pictures of Aleppo now, you won’t find a single building still standing. That was Sami’s home for two years.

Sami, as always, was unable to hide his emotions. If anybody else in the hall was looking at him, they’d think he was scared. Max realised it was something else.

– Sami’s father managed to stay alive for six months. But the building in which they were hiding was hit by a government air strike. One bomb killed a hundred and thirty-eight people, including Sami’s dad. His mother and two sisters survived, but they were all still on the government’s hit list. Sami moved them to a new hiding place and protected them from government troops for nine months. You want to know why he was even better than Lukas on the range? It’s because he spent those nine months with an AK-47 in his hand, protecting his family from people who wanted to kill them. I don’t know how many government troops he was forced to shoot. I’ll never ask him, and I hope none of you do either, when you get out of here.

Tears ran down Sami’s cheeks. The Chinese girl, who was striding up and down in front of the stage and did not know the real reason Sami was upset, sneered at him.

– It was another air strike that killed what was left of Sami’s family. After that there was nothing to keep him in Aleppo. He made the dangerous journey from Syria across Europe to the UK. We picked him up when he claimed asylum. I guess I don’t need to explain why he’s exactly the type of person who would thrive in the Special Forces Cadets.

There was a moment of silence. In one corner of the hall, four terrorists were conferring. A couple of them looked at their watches. Max wondered why. He felt a wave of sickness. Were they on a schedule?

He was distracted by Hector’s voice again.

– Jack’s out of the game. We don’t know if he’s alive or not. There will be time later to mourn him if he isn’t. Which leaves Max.