The truck came to a halt. The two men in the front climbed out; Ben and Aarya’s guard did the same and the three men spoke briefly at the back of the truck before each drinking from a bottle of water. Ben’s mouth was impossibly dry. He shuffled to the back of the truck and got their attention by pointing at the water bottle.
The three men looked uncertainly at each other, but then one of them nodded. He approached Ben and removed the gag from around his mouth and handed him the bottle. Ben drank deeply and felt his body absorbing the water as it slipped down his parched throat. After he had taken several gulps he turned in order to pass it to Aarya; as he did so, however, it was snatched back from him.
‘She’s thirsty too!’ he said, his voice croaky. But the men obviously weren’t interested. Before he knew it they were off again, trundling into the darkness.
‘We need to keep them talking,’ Ben said in a low voice, not at all sure whether their captors spoke English. ‘Can you translate?’
Aarya nodded, her eyes wide. Just then, however, their guard raised his gun and jabbed Ben in the ribs. He winced with pain as the man spoke.
‘He says, be quiet,’ Aarya said. ‘He says, if we talk he will shoot us.’ Her lower lip started to tremble.
Ben jutted his jaw out in the man’s direction, but he kept quiet just as he’d been told to. There was, he knew, no point annoying a guy with a gun.
They continued in tense, nervous silence.
Another hour passed. Two hours. Gradually Ben became aware of the night fading away and a steely grey light illuminating the countryside around them. Ben always felt weird when he hadn’t slept all night; time didn’t seem to have much meaning and it surprised him when he worked out it could only be Tuesday morning, barely forty-eight hours since he had landed in Islamabad. The terrain on either side of the poor road was rocky and unwelcoming; and in the distance he saw mountains, majestic and craggy. The one thing he didn’t see, he thought glumly, were any other vehicles. The whole area looked deserted, and all the more threatening for that. Suddenly, as he looked through the window, he found himself having to clamp his eyes shut. The sun had peeked up over the mountain range and was now shining fiercely into his face. A new day had come to Pakistan.
Still they drove, in silence and discomfort. Every now and then, Ben tried to say something; but he was always cut short by a vicious glare from the guard, or another poke in the ribs from the rifle if he was unlucky. The road started to slope upwards. They were travelling, Ben realized, into the hills.
His stomach burned with hunger and it crossed his mind that they hadn’t eaten for twenty-four hours. At least he’d had some water. Aarya hadn’t, and she looked the worse for it. Her eyelids were drooping, and even though she was clearly trying to stay awake, exhaustion was painted on her face. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile; Aarya smiled half-heartedly back.
The cloth that bound Ben’s wrists rubbed his skin. His every thought was about how they could escape; but held at gunpoint with their hands tied, he knew there was very little he could do…
Two hundred miles away, a Hercules C-130 had landed at Camp Bastion, the British military base in Helmand Province. It had touched down in darkness. The pilots had worn night-vision goggles, but the passengers had had to make do with the pitch black. By the time Bel disembarked, however, daylight was arriving and already the early-morning sun was warm.
Camp Bastion bustled with activity. Helicopters arrived and left; trucks carried supplies all over this massive base — food, water, ammunition. All the essentials of war. A man was waiting for her. He wore military uniform and had a friendly face with bright blue eyes and blond hair. His skin was tanned from the Afghan sun and he held out his hand as Bel approached. ‘Dr Kelland?’ he shouted over the noise of the airfield. ‘Welcome to Bastion. I’m Major James Strickland. I’ll be your liaison officer while you’re here.’
Bel smiled. ‘Pleased to meet you.’
‘I’ll show you to your quarters,’ Major Strickland said. ‘And then I’ll explain to you how things get done in this neck of the woods.’
Bel’s quarters were in a low concrete dormitory which she was to share with seven female intelligence officers when she wasn’t out on the ground with the locals. It was basic — a low bed with a locker to one side for her things — but clean. Once she had stowed her things away, she followed Major Strickland to a briefing room. It was still very early, but she felt pleased that the room was air-conditioned: it was already very hot outside.
The room was simple. A whiteboard at one end and a load of chairs facing it. A bit like a school room, Bel thought. In front of the whiteboard was a map of the area on a stand. ‘Helmand Province,’ Major Strickland said. ‘Camp Bastion is here.’ He pointed to a position roughly in the centre of the province. ‘We’ve arranged for your first visit to be to a small settlement here, between Sangin and Kajaki.’ His finger moved to an area north-east of Bastion.
‘How will I get there?’ Bel asked. ‘By car?’
Strickland smiled, as if it was a silly question. ‘No, Dr Kelland. Not by car. Any journeys in this region by ground need to be undertaken in heavily armoured vehicles. Helmand Province is littered with landmines. The enemy have also covered the areas with IEDs — improvised explosive devices. Ground travel in Afghanistan is incredibly dangerous. You’ll be transported by Chinook helicopter to a British Army forward operating base in the area. It’s called FOB Jackson. You’ll stay there for two nights. It’s hardly luxurious, I’m afraid.’
‘I didn’t come here for luxury,’ Bel said.
‘Good. The villagers will come to you for shuras. That’s their word for a meeting. We have four shuras arranged for you over the next two days. If everything goes according to plan, we can arrange others for you in different parts of the province.’
Bel nodded. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘When do we go?’
‘In about an hour,’ the soldier told her. ‘A Chinook will be ready for you, assuming it’s not needed for an emergency.’
‘Like what?’
‘Medical evacuation,’ Strickland said briskly. ‘We have soldiers engaging the Taliban all over the province. Those Chinooks are an important asset out here, Dr Kelland. I’m afraid you’re not the only person who wants to make use of them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few things to attend to.’
‘Of course,’ Bel murmured. She followed the major out of the room and into the heat of the Afghanistan day, a small part of her mind wondering what on earth she was about to do.
If they wanted us dead, Ben thought to himself as the Land Rover plodded on, they’d have killed us already. There’s got to be another reason why we’re here. It wasn’t much of a thought to hang onto, but it was something. It made Ben feel a little bit bolder. He turned to Aarya. ‘We’re going to be OK,’ he said with all the confidence he could muster. When he received another poke in the ribs from the rifle, he stopped himself from wincing and gave the man a stubborn look. For some reason, that made him feel a bit better.
The journey continued. It didn’t take long for the heat to become immense. Sweat poured from Ben’s body and he longed for another mouthful of water. Nobody offered him one. He tried to forget about his sandpaper-dry throat and concentrate on what he could do to get them out of this. But he didn’t know where they were; they had no food or water; and their captors were armed. Flight seemed impossible.
It was mid-morning when they stopped. From the window of the truck Ben had watched as they climbed steadily higher into the mountains before taking a small road that started heading downhill. Now they had stopped by what looked like a very ancient low wall. A boundary. It stretched off into the distance and on either side the terrain remained rocky and unwelcoming.