John Carr

Chapter 95. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 96. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 97. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 98. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 99. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 100. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 101. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 102. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 103. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 104. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 105. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 106. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 107. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 108. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 109. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 110. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 111. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 112. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 113. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 114. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 115. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 116. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 117. (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 118. (#litres_trial_promo)

EPILOGUE 1 (#litres_trial_promo)

EPILOGUE 2 (#litres_trial_promo)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

PROLOGUE (#ulink_9198f1ac-9744-571b-be95-a67c17000439)

THE TWO MEN knew each other of old, having fought as brothers-in-arms in various places over many years, but they had not seen each other in person for a long time.

Life for men like them had become a good deal more challenging and dangerous since September 11, 2001, so their contact was restricted to darknet chatrooms, snatched conversations on encoded VOIP systems, and, once in a blue moon, cryptic notes passed via trusted intermediaries.

Their secret conversations through these unorthodox channels were often surprisingly banal. One would grumble about the filthy weather in the grubby little town in which he was currently hiding, and the other would counter with complaints about the terrible food in his present, miserable location.

On the rare occasions when the mood was lighter, they talked of happier times, and of their families. Each had a wife and children back home, but neither expected ever again to kiss his wife nor hold his children; the path they walked was a path of shadows and sorrow, and it led in one direction only.

Their lives were full of uncertainty, and privation, and fear, and precious few comforts and the wise man cut his ties, of friendship and of blood, permanently.

Death stalked them daily, and, being only human, they sometimes wondered how it was that they, who had given so much, had ended up living like rats, while others, who had given so little, lived like kings.

Why were their days all stone and no fruit, all grit and no pearl?

Of course, each tried hard to cast this unworthy thought from his mind; it was dangerous to harbour such ideas – and not merely in the spiritual sense.

That had been the way of their lives for so long that they had almost – almost – forgotten what it was like to live normally.

And then, one day, the younger of the two men contacted his older friend via a mobile telephony app with secure, end-to-end encryption.

After the usual small talk, the younger man – a giant Chechen called Khasmohmad Kadyrov, who was presently living in a cramped room in a safe house in Cairo – made a tentative suggestion.

Very tentative.

What, he asked, if there were a way in which they might both strike the enemy and – and he tried hard not to be vulgar about this – achieve a more… earthly reward for themselves?

At first, the older man – a Yemeni called Saeed al-Shafra – was sceptical, and even hostile.

But this was something of an act.

Al-Shafra was nearly sixty, now, and he had grown tired, and listless, and, as he looked around the spartan room, in his modest, baked-mud home, in the compound on the edge of the dusty village in the dreary Balochi outpost of Nushki, it occurred to him that he was perhaps even a little bitter about the turns his life had taken.

‘Go on,’ he said.

‘I have a friend,’ said Kadyrov, hesitantly. ‘A good friend, from the old days. I mean, a long way back – he’s from Vedeno, fought with the 055 at Mazar-e Sharif.’

‘I missed that party,’ said the Yemeni. ‘So many men, slaughtered like goats.’

‘Indeed,’ said Kadyrov. ‘But my friend was lucky. He got injured, some shrapnel took a chunk out of his right calf, so he got taken away before the massacre.’