I opened the glovebox and tipped some brown Milo powder from a tin into a plastic mug, then splashed warm water over it from a well-used one-litre bottle that had once been full of Orangina. Milo was a nightmare to mix unless the water was boiling but I had grown to like it, lumps and all. I offered some to Standish; the look on his face cracked me up.

The day-to-day nitty-gritty really wasn't his style. Standish was basically the link with the embassy, and spent as little time as possible with the team – which was why he looked set for a night at the opera and was getting to shag Annabel while the rest of us had a month's facial hair and peeling noses.

The man really running the job was Seven Troop's staff sergeant, Gary B. Originally from the Royal Engineers, Gaz was a man of few words: 'fuck', 'fucking' and 'fuck you' pretty much covered it, as far as he was concerned. I had a lot of time for him. Just under six foot tall, with long, jet-black hair that curled round his neck, he looked like a roadie for the Stones – but since he'd developed two of the world's biggest boils in the last couple of days, one each side of his neck, we'd nicknamed him Frankenstein. We only called him that behind his back, of course. Gary had a quick temper and none of us wanted to wind up on the receiving end of some friendly fire.

He was in the lead wagon, maybe eighty metres ahead of us.

'Annabel? Come in, Annabel.'

Standish's mop of blond hair never seemed to get greasy and never stuck up after a night in a sleeping-bag like ours did. Annabel probably lent him her hairbrush.

He'd come to the Regiment from the Coldstream Guards; all those years under a busby must have given him plenty of practice at looking down his nose on the rest of the world. Every time he opened his mouth it was as if he was about to give a pep talk to the archers at Agincourt. I didn't think he was ever going to be my new best mate.