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golden retriever with a red rosette attached to its collar. ‘Your girlfriend, Dan?’
    He coloured. ‘Not just at the moment.’
    â€˜Ah!’ A lovers’ quarrel he expected to resolve? ‘Nice dog. Best of breed at a show?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    Touchy subject so move on, Max told himself, trying to assess Farley’s character. Not aggressively masculine in build, how did he rate personality-wise? Narrow face with strong bone structure, firm mouth but somewhat dreamy grey eyes. An idealist? Rather too trusting until he discovered his mistake? Afghanistan would test his inner and outer strengths.
    Max explained why SIB was taking some interest in what had occurred during the mock assault. ‘What’s your opinion of the suggestion that Smith was murdered by one of his fellows? Would you rate that a possibility?’
    Farley, perched on his bed, looked nonplussed. ‘You’re not taking the call seriously?’
    â€˜Until Smith is traced, or until we discover who made the call and why, we have to. How well do you know the missing man?’
    â€˜I only joined the regiment two months ago. I’ve not had time to familiarize myself with their personalities,’ he said somewhat defensively. ‘As soldiers they’re a decent enough bunch, although it was evident from the start that Smith didn’t integrate well.’
    â€˜Oh?’ said Max encouragingly.
    â€˜He was always alone when I saw him walking about the base, and during short breaks in activities he never sat with a group of mates. I mentioned it to Sar’nt Miller during my first weeks with the platoon; said Smith didn’t seem a real team player. He promised to have a word with him, but he’s been occupied with personal concerns and there’s a hell of a lot to do before an exercise: checking equipment, getting vehicles overhauled, lecturing the men on manoeuvres during simulated battle. Things get sidelined until the end of the exercise.’
    â€˜So tell me exactly what happened when you became aware that Smith was missing.’
    Leaning back against the wall, Farley described how Sergeant Miller had reported the absence of a man, last seen around half an hour into the mock assault. ‘The platoon was widely spread out over undulating terrain. Easy for a man to fall from a ledge, or collapse from illness. No live ammo that day so we weren’t wearing high visibility vests. I wish to God we had been. Smith would have shown up on the coordinators’ screen and we could have pinpointed his position right away. As it was, we assumed Smith was in trouble and instigated an immediate search. I called up a helo and we took the Warriors back out there. We did our best, but we had to give up when it grew dark. The men were dead on their feet. We presently have three men in the sick bay with heat exhaustion. The new MO is apparently on the warpath over it.’
    â€˜He’s arrived at last, has he?’ asked Max with interest, because much of SIB work involved liaison with the Medical Officer.
    â€˜ She . A tough cookie according to my boss, Captain Fanshawe.’
    â€˜That’ll liven things up a bit,’ said Max getting to his feet. ‘Thanks for your input. I’ll leave you to your futuristic novel.’
    â€˜Sorry I couldn’t give you a concise summation of Smith’s character. As I said, Sar’nt Miller will be more helpful on that score. He seemed quite certain Smith had done a bunk,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘I can’t see it, myself. If the man meant to go AWOL, why attempt it under such difficult conditions? He’d wait until we returned to base and go out in civvies one evening, taking enough cash and his credit card to get him where he planned to go.’
    â€˜That’s the logical way of thinking, but in my job I’ve found people can behave in an unbelievably irrational manner. We have three possibilities here. Smith