He tried one gambit. ‘I need to piss, brother.’ Another. ‘I can’t say my prayers like this, brother.’ A curl of the lip from the bleak figure facing him. A third. ‘Which way’s east?’ The figure shook his head. ‘Don’t you speak, man?’ A scowl.

The van juddered to a stop, swiftly followed by the crunch of boots on gravel and the shock of blinding daylight as the back doors were flung open. His escort shoved him out of the van and he managed not to stumble. They were on a rutted single-track road through the forest. There was no view, no contours in the land – no sense of height or terrain. He knew these men had been here before. One produced a bottle of water, filled a small basin, and gestured at him to wash and say his prayers. His heart raced as he wondered if they were to be his last. They watched and, when he’d finished, retrieved the basin.

‘I need a piss, brothers.’ They pointed to a bush and carried on watching. As he emptied his aching bladder, he stole a look to left and right but each direction led only to a canopy of forest. ‘Where are we?’

‘You’re in the back of there, brother,’ said the driver, opening the doors again.

‘Hey, you speak.’ Sami turned from driver to escort. ‘He don’t.’

The blow in the solar plexus doubled him up, arrows of agony tearing into his gut. ‘Fuck!’ was all he could say. They shoved him inside with a kick in the back of a knee. He looked down at the escort’s hob-nailed boots and excruciating pain speared into his thigh. The grinding and spluttering of an abused engine drove them ever higher. He tried to imagine sky, sun, cloud, rain. Nothing came – just the implacable expression of the man opposite.

‘You know what day it is, brother?’ The escort’s voice struck like a cymbal clash. He’d spoken. This time he’d be the one to say nothing.

‘I asked you a question, brother. Do you know what day it is today?’

‘What you mean, what day?’

‘September the eleventh. Eleven nine. Nine eleven. Remember?’ His voice leeched sarcasm. ‘Fifth anniversary.’

‘Yeah, fuck, sorry, brother.’ Sami tried to stop the cowering in his mind from showing in his face. Nor the confusion, because he didn’t know what he was supposed to say.

‘And you call yourself a brother.’

‘Fuck’s sake, I’m confused. Wouldn’t you be? Five years, yeah?’

‘That’s right. Never forget. Five years.’