Chapter Seven
Life for Hugh Wilkes had been quiet for the past few weeks—well, as quiet as it got when a bloke was on tour in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, anyway. After the drama with the goat farmer, which had been resolved by communicating with HQ and having them send a team up there to check for more IEDs, things had settled right down again. He’d gone out most days with a section, visiting the school, the mosque, the police station, and so far there’d been nothing to report.
Visitors to the camp had been very few—the local politician, come to report some rumours he’d heard, which turned out to be nothing, and the goat farmer, come to thank them for sending a bomb disposal team out.
When he wasn’t busy, Wilkes was making himself busy. The incident with fantasy-Balkhi had shak
