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SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN: 1530 hours local time. SHIT SHIT, SHIT, RED LIGHT .... HYDRAULICS. Roger Captain. I see it. replied the male voice, calm as always. Looks like we better be setting it down right now. There. The road at 2 o’clock looks like the only flat ground I can see. Yea. Looks clear. You bring it down, I’ll call in, replied the female voice. She sounded calmer now , reassured and just a little shamed, by the matter of fact tone of the older warrant officer. But she remained worried enough to put her pride aside and...

I pulled away from the telescope momentarily to consider my sanity, and realised that I was quite hungry; it had only been six hours since I ate a truly hearty steak--the last one my freezer was stocked with--but the rumbling could not have been a lie. I abandoned the balcony to arrive almost immediately in the vicinity of my fridge, which was flung open--it was not I who left it this way. Cautiously, I listened; I glanced about and, finding nothing else amiss, I approached the cold, exposed racks. Nothing was gone or out of place among my neat assortment of...