She didn’t finish her sentence. Tony crashed his fist against her broken nose again. The back of her head slammed against the tree. She gasped in pain.

  ‘I’m not fucking around, Caitlin.’

  ‘I swear I don’t—’

  ‘He went absent from Shorabak twenty-four hours ago. He must have made contact with you soon after that. What have you been doing since then?’ He leaned in closer. ‘Word of advice,’ he whispered. ‘If you say nothing, I’m going to fuck you hard with this knife.’

  Caitlin believed him. She knew she had no choice.

  ‘We went to find Al-Zafawi,’ she breathed.

  There was a brief silence. ‘The Red Unit guy? Why?’

  Caitlin was finding it difficult to speak. Her words were slurred. ‘We worked out he had a connection with your target in Panjika . . .’

  ‘Did you find him?’

  She nodded weakly. ‘And the footage . . .’

  ‘What footage?’ He grabbed Caitlin’s hair and squeezed. ‘What footage?’

  ‘The footage of you,’ she spat, ‘stealing the American bullion.’

  Another silence.

  ‘What do you mean,’ Tony breathed, ‘the American bullion.’

  Caitlin could feel her eyes rolling. ‘They’re giving it to Al-Zafawi,’ she said. ‘To distribute around the warlords in Helmand. Their way of trying to keep the peace.’ She could feel blood pouring from her nose again. Her chin fell to her chest. ‘That’s what you found,’ she said. ‘His guy was guarding it, but there was a hidden camera.’

  ‘What happened to the footage?’ Tony said, his voice low and dangerous.

  ‘Spearpoint told us to destroy it.’

  ‘And did you?’

  It was all she could do to nod.

  He stared hard at her. ‘How many guys in this unit?’

  ‘Four, plus Danny.’

  ‘What are they doing now? You lie to me again, I’ll decide you’re no fucking use to me any more and you know what that means.’

  Caitlin hesitated. ‘They know where the bullion is,’ she said.

  ‘What . . .’ His eyes were momentarily panicked. He stared hard at her, as if trying to discern if she was lying, then appeared suddenly to have understood something. ‘The radio GPS . . .’ he said, almost to himself.

  Caitlin nodded. Her vision was blurred but she could sense Tony’s mind working. ‘Did you kill Al-Zafawi?’ he demanded.

  She shook her head. ‘Spearpoint told us not to. The Americans . . .’ Her voice petered out.

  ‘I bet Black loved that. So where is he?’

  ‘Why do you want to know—’

  Bang. He whacked his fist against her broken nose again. There was a flashing pain through her skull. She could barely talk. ‘There’s . . . there’s a cave . . .’

  She felt the knife move. Up from between her legs, back to her left eye. ‘The next words you’re going to say, Caitlin, will be Al-Zafawi’s exact location.’

  Caitlin inhaled deeply. Her chest rattled. She realised she’d been swallowing her own blood. ‘You head north from here . . . hit the road heading east . . . follow it till you find a roadside shrine . . . head north towards the mountains . . .’

  ‘Good.’ Tony sniffed. ‘I think that just about concludes our conversation, Caitlin. Leaves me with just one problem. What am I going to do with you?’ He reached out and grabbed a fistful of flowers from nearby, then held them up to her. ‘Maybe I should take you with me. We could go dig up my gold. Start a new life together, you and me.’

  She nodded faintly.

  ‘You’d like that, huh? You’d like to be rich? Well I’m sorry, darling. It’s not going to happen.’ He dropped the flowers in her lap. ‘You’re not coming with me. You’re not going anywhere. I’m going to fuck you up just like I fucked up those muppets Dexter and Cole. And I’m going to fuck Danny Black up too, just as soon as I get my hands on him.’

  Caitlin felt a moment of dizziness. When she regained her composure, she realised Tony had the blade of his knife held gently against her neck.

  Mina felt paralysed. Fear had frozen her limbs.

  The two soldiers, one slung over the other’s shoulder, had been out of sight for nearly a minute before she was able to move. She eased herself to her feet. Her first instinct was to turn her back on the compound and head back home the way she came. She even took several steps in that direction.

  But somehow she couldn’t do it.

  She turned.

  Everything was silent. It was as if the violence she’d just witnessed had never happened.

  She remembered the kindness the female soldier had shown her. It would be scant repayment to ignore her now.

  There had been others in the compound, she remembered. An interpreter and another soldier, burly and bearded. She needed to alert them.

  Mina looked around to check there was nobody about, then she ran towards the compound. She was a little out of breath by the time she reached the door. It was ajar. She gingerly pushed it open and stepped inside.

  ‘Hello?’ she whispered. It was the only word of English she knew. ‘Hello?’

  She stopped. There was something in the middle of the courtyard. She could not tell what it was at first. Only when she took another few steps closer did she realise it was a body. Close up, she saw it was the kind interpreter from the other night, and that her throat had been brutally cut.

  Mina doubled over and dry-retched. She couldn’t look at the body. It was too much for her. She backed away, fully intending to run from the compound.

  She couldn’t. The image of the female soldier being beaten replayed itself in her head. She needed to find the man with the beard. She looked around the courtyard and saw that the door to one of the rooms was open. She headed towards it.

  Stepped inside.

  How she wished she hadn’t.

  The bearded soldier was slumped against the back wall. Not only dead, but brutally disfigured. Mina retched again, staggering back towards the door.

  What sort of person would do that? she asked herself.

  She realised she knew the answer.

  Her hands trembled. The nausea returned. But although she wanted to run – every cell in her body shrieked at her to do it – she didn’t. She looked around the room. It was dark, but her eyes were getting used to it now. She couldn’t find what she wanted and although she took pains not to let her gaze fall on the horrific sight of the blinded soldier, Mina knew instinctively that she would have to approach him at some point. Best to do it quickly.

  She averted her eyes as she walked up to the corpse. And she kept them half closed as she patted down the body. It was already stiff and cold, and it felt wrong, touching a man like this, even a dead one. But she found what she was looking for within a few seconds. It was holstered under his camouflage jacket. She pulled the gun carefully from its holster.

  Mina held it by the handle between her thumb and forefinger, but she immediately knew that would not do. She gripped the handle and forced her hand to stop shaking. She didn’t know much about guns, but she had seen men in the village using them. She could tell that it was ready to fire. All she had to do was flick the switch on the side and squeeze the trigger.

  The thought of doing that made her hand shake again.

  Gripping the gun tightly, she hurried out into the courtyard and past the interpreter’s body. At the door, she stopped and listened. All she could hear was her own panicked breathing. She told herself she was being foolish. That she should return home and forget what she had seen. No good could come of it.

  But she knew she wouldn’t. The female soldier had been kind. She had saved the life of Mina’s friend. She did not deserve what was coming to her.

  She stepped outside and hurried in the direction she had seen the two figures disappear.

  ‘I’m going to fuck you up, just like I fucked up those muppets Dexter and Cole. And I’m going to fuck Danny Black up too, just as soon as I get my hands on him.’

  With the knife still resting against Caitlin’s throat, Tony picked up the rag he had used to shut the bitch up. He stuffed it back in her mouth.

  He’d been ready to kill her the moment she’d admitted to helping Danny Black. But somehow that wasn’t enough. The thought of them together had turned his blood hot. Caitlin had been Tony’s once, for a brief time. To give herself to Black? That was a betrayal he couldn’t forgive. She needed to know that. To be shown that. Then the bitch could die begging him.

  He put one hand on her crotch. Grabbed it hard. Squeezed so it hurt. He spat in her face as he was doing it. ‘You fucking whore,’ he whispered. And when he spoke again, he emphasised each word with as painful a grope as he could manage. ‘I should cut your fucking tongue out first, just for speaking to him.’ He moved the knife to the edge of her mouth. ‘Maybe I’ll do that, hey?’

  Her eyes widened in panic. She tried to say something but couldn’t.

  ‘Don’t worry, love. When I catch up with Danny Black – and I will do that, with a little help from my friends – I’ll tell him exactly what happened here. Then I’ll do the same to him. You’ll be just another couple of white dots on my M4. I’m getting quite the collection.’

  He pressed the point of the blade into her lower lip. Blood trickled down it.

  He angled the blade up, ready to stick it into her mouth.

  Then he stopped.

  Why wasn’t she looking at him? Why was she looking over his shoulder? Beyond him.

  He lowered his knife and slowly turned.

  He didn’t know whether to laugh or spit.

  A girl was standing ten metres away. She wore blue robes and her headdress was unravelled to show her young face. She was slight. Her arms were outstretched, inexpertly holding a pistol. Her hands were shaking.

  She said something in Pashto. Her voice wavered as she spoke. Whatever she said, she was clearly terrified.

  Caitlin jerked violently, pushing herself up against Tony as she tried to shout out. Something snapped inside him. He didn’t bother with the knife. He just elbowed Caitlin’s bloodied face with all the angry force he could muster, crushing the back of her head against the tree trunk. She slumped, unconscious. Dead? Alive? He didn’t fucking care either way.

  He turned his attention back to the girl. She hadn’t moved. She didn’t know how to hold a gun. The chances of her accurately placing a round at that distance were almost zero. She probably didn’t even know how to fire it.

  He stood up slowly, knife in hand. It crossed his mind to throw the blade in her direction. He could probably hit her from here. Even if he missed, it would distract her and give him enough time to draw his own handgun.

  She repeated herself. Her voice was cracked and harsh. Tony sneered at her. Maybe he wouldn’t even bother with the knife. Maybe he’d just –

  The girl fired as he moved his free hand.

  The retort of the unsuppressed weapon was noisy, and the round was too close for comfort. Tony felt the air displacement as it whizzed past his right cheek and slammed into the tree behind, sending a shower of bark and splinters into the air.

  The girl stepped forward two metres. She spoke again.

  Suddenly Tony was less sure of himself. The girl had clearly known enough to set the weapon to semi-automatic. She was ready to take another shot.

  He raised his hands and nodded towards his vehicle. It was ten metres to his two o’clock, parked at the edge of this flower-filled orchard.

  The girl nodded. She kept her weapon trained on him.

  Tony could taste his own hatred and anger. But he knew he was in danger. He sidestepped in the direction of the vehicle. The girl followed him with her weapon. He could see her eyes flicker occasionally towards Caitlin’s motionless form. But her attention was on him, and her weapon followed him precisely.

  He edged towards the vehicle. Five metres. Three. As he drew closer to it, the girl advanced, flattening flowers beneath her feet and keeping the distance between them to a constant eight metres. Opening the driver’s door, he considered using it as a shield. If he did that, he could put her down. But there were other considerations. A loose round might put his vehicle out of action and he was going to need it. More gunfire would draw others from the village to this location. Not what he wanted.

  No. The girl was reluctant to kill him. His best strategy was to take advantage of that, and get out of here.

  He opened the vehicle. Got behind the wheel. It felt sticky. He realised that his hands were covered in blood. He turned the engine over. All the while, the girl stood with her weapon pointing directly at the driver’s side window. Tony knocked the vehicle into gear and advanced to the south, out of the copse.

  Before he cleared the trees he checked in his rear-view mirror. The girl was still pointing her weapon towards him. In his peripheral vision, he saw two more shadowy figures entering the copse. He had the impression that they were dressed in blue. Who the hell were they?

  He wasn’t sticking around to find out. He accelerated out of the treeline and up towards the road without looking back.

  Mina waited until the vehicle was well out of sight. Only then did she lower the gun. Her legs were trembling. She felt as if they might give way beneath her. She took in a deep breath, then spun round to look at the soldier.

  Only then did she see the two figures advancing out of the darkness into the orchard.

  They were dressed like Mina, in blue robes, but their headdresses were still wrapped around their heads. They stopped when they were a few metres away from her. Their eyes, visible through the slits in their headdresses, were wide and anxious.

  ‘Your grandmother sent us to look for you,’ one of them said in Pashto. ‘We heard a gunshot. We thought—’

  ‘You need to help me,’ Mina said to her friend. She ran towards the female soldier, laid the handgun on the ground and knelt down next to her. Her face was covered in blood. Mina didn’t even know if she was alive. She felt her neck for a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.

  ‘Others are coming,’ her friend whispered. ‘Men . . .’

  As if to confirm what her friend had just said, she shouted from the direction of the village. Somewhere, a dog barked.

  ‘Help me with her,’ she said. ‘Come on, help me with her!’

  It took two of them to lift the unconscious soldier to her feet. The third girl went ahead, scouting in the shadows. With one arm over each shoulder, they dragged the casualty towards the village. Mina felt her heart pumping. If the men found them, she did not know what would happen.

  But she knew this: she would do whatever it took to save the woman who had been so kind to her. If that meant risking the anger of the elders of the village, or the Taliban, or even her grandmother, then so be it.

  CHAPTER 22

  Tony was sweating. Badly. Not just because of the heat. He’d messed up back there. He knew it. As the lights of his vehicle cut through the Afghan night, the tyres crunching on the rough road, he scowled as he relived the moment that stupid bitch of an Afghan girl held him at gunpoint. He should have done her. Driven the Land Rover straight into her body. It would have been easy.

  Forget about it, he told himself. Caitlin was fucked-up anyway. Probably brain damaged. Maybe dead. He didn’t need to worry about her.

  But Danny Black? Danny Black he did need to worry about.

  Because Caitlin hadn’t told him everything.

  Maybe she didn’t know everything.

  If Spearpoint and Hereford knew about the bullion, they’d have put two and two together regarding Dexter and Cole. Maybe they even knew he’d killed Holroyd.

  So what was Black’s real reason for hooking up with a Regiment unit from Kabul? What would they not want to tell that bitch with the broken nose? Tony thought he could guess. They knew she and Tony had been a thing. If a kill order had been issued, they’d keep it dark from Caitlin, in case she tipped him off.

  He felt bile in the back of his throat. If Black had a kill order on Tony, he’d relish carrying it out. Tony would have to go off the grid. For a long time.

  For that, he needed money.

  His money. Safely cached, in the form of bullion, on the mountainside.

  Tony, Dexter and Cole had positioned it well. Halfway up a slope, well away from the nearest road, by a gulley among the trees. The slope was stony and boulder-strewn. Nobody would have any reason to climb it. Even if they did, the cache was well camouflaged. They had covered the freshly dug earth with stones from the surrounding area, and memorised its position: right next to an unmovable boulder with two sharp protuberances, like a V sign.

  But now, Tony knew beyond doubt, a five-man Regiment unit would be advancing towards the cache. They’d set up firing positions in the hope that Tony showed. If he didn’t, they’d confiscate the bullion.

  That thought made Tony hit the brakes. The Land Rover jolted to a halt. In a sudden fury, he climbed down from the vehicle, walked to the rear nearside tyre and kicked it hard. ‘Fuck. Fuck!’ He spat on the floor.

  Then he breathed deeply, clutched his hair and tried to think his way through this.

  He couldn’t take on a five-man unit. Not by himself. Back when he was questioning Caitlin a crazy idea had come to him. Could he really pull it off? Did he have any other option?

  Suddenly, explosively, Tony slammed his fist against the Land Rover’s chassis. He’d risked too much to let that bullion go. It wasn’t going to happen.

  He felt a wind on the back of his neck. He peered from the side of the road across the bleak, dark Afghan terrain. The wind was hot but brisk. It had picked up quickly. Tony knew what it meant. A sandstorm. Already he could feel grains of sand whipping his face. He hurried back into the vehicle.

  What had Caitlin said? There’s a cave . . . You head north from here . . . hit the road heading east . . . follow it till you find a roadside shrine . . . head north towards the mountains . . .

  Caitlin had told him that she and Danny had received an order to leave Al-Zafawi alive. If he followed her directions, assuming Al-Zafawi had not yet had the chance to evacuate his cave, he would find the Taliban leader.