Precisely an hour later, Steve and Catherine are on a military vehicle headed into town, accompanied by the army reconnaissance squad Agent Morrison had spoken of. Eager to hide any personal attachment to each other, they both behave as they would in their Navy days – no looks, no side glances, no big smiles, no touching, just business. Steve's on edge, fully aware of how dangerous their foray into the village may turn out to be. Now that he seems to have finally admitted to himself that, maybe, Catherine is not the evil witch who gratuitously broke his heart for her own selfish reasons, and after having taken some time, though not all he should have, to think about his own shortcomings, he wants to gather the courage to sit her down and talk about what happened in the past. That is as far as his thoughts have taken him, when he starts to spot villagers on the road, headed into town.

A caravan of camels carrying tents and household items moves slowly, but steadily, across the dry and barren road - what little is left of it - filled with craters and holes, from landmines. The nomads that own them are headed South, in search of better grazing pastures for their animals. Along the roadside, fields of wheat, rice, and vegetables can be seen, with the women tending the crops and carrying water. An Afghan boy is herding a flock of sheep on the other side of the road.

Twenty minutes into their ride, they come to the Harut river bridge and, from Steve's calculations, they are about five minutes away from town. As he looks outside to assess any threats, he can see some villagers going about their business, dressed in typical Afghan peraahan tunbaan (1), with lungee (2) firmly attached to their heads. Some women can also be seen, children attached to their hips, dressed in their sad and colourless tunbaan (3) and covered with hijabs, a few totally covered with their burqas, who stop and look at the military vehicle in surprise. A child of about twelve is retrieving water from a well. Steve can't help but make a parallel between the life he leads and the lives of these people, and wonder who's happier.

Sitting on a dusty rug beside their lorries, at the edge of Khayfan, a group of middle-aged drivers are engaged in a lively discussion; leaning forward in a black kurta (4), one of them is waving his arms about wildly, probably trying to sell the group something and negotiating the price. They are apparently undisturbed by the military convoy and as the dust settles, they continue to talk animatedly.

After passing a military checkpoint, they reach the village, and Steve can finally look around. Bombed-out stone buildings and homes are everywhere, perched on the hilltops. At the center of Khayfan is a single dirt road, lined with small wooden stalls - the market. Only the most basic goods look to be available, a few fruit stands and a butcher shop with slabs of fly-covered meat hanging in the open air. Another stall sells everything else that the modern man might need, except… there are no modern men here. Only survivors. Steve suspects there is no electricity as well, or even running water. Apart from the old and decrepit lorries on the road from before, there are no cars in sight, so he surmises that villagers walk almost everywhere, using the few donkeys around to carry the heavy loads, when needed. A simple, poor existence, worsened by the harsh weather conditions, this time of year, and the Taliban.

The soldiers disband and, holding their rifles to their chest, go in search of the villagers they know. A few minutes later, one of them comes out of one of the stone buildings and discreetly calls out to Catherine and Steve. When they reach him, he mentions that the owner of the house has some information for them on the man they seek, but they must be discrete in the extreme. Steve nods, removes a bundle of cloth from his bag and enters the house, followed by Catherine. The soldier goes in after them, unsure if the two people they were ordered to shadow today can even speak the language.

The small room has a wood stove in one corner, clearly the only source of heat in the small house. A wall torch illuminates them, casting shadows in between the flickering light, making Catherine feel ill at ease. Electricity is a very expensive commodity here, and it must not be easy or affordable to find fuel for a generator, rendering it useless to most homes. Sitting cross-legged on the beautifully carpeted floor, the man starts by offering them chai, beckoning them to sit down by his side. Catherine hesitates, adjusting her head cover, not wanting to offend local custom, but he smiles warmly at her and extends his hand, indicating the floor next to him. She sits down a few feet away from the man and from Steve, against a wall, alert to any change of circumstances. Suddenly, she can hear giggles and when she follows the sound, Catherine spots three women behind a curtain, scanning the room with enormous curiosity. Their heads are covered, but not their eyes, lively, amused, friendly. Suddenly, Catherine thinks that she might've struck up a friendly relationship with these women, which might make them open up to her, if she were to stay longer in the area. As it is, the man sitting in the living room floor starts to speak, and all three women disappear immediately from behind the curtain.

The man tries to communicate with Steve, whose Pashto isn't good, so when the soldier standing at the door moves to translate, Catherine signals to him to stay put. She greets the man with respect, briefly looking him in the eye, placing her right hand over her heart and saying "Salam Alaikum. We thank you for welcoming us to your home. We are aware that you are in danger simply from talking to us. My name is Catherine, this is Steve."

The man's face immediately shows his surprise. Never, in a million years, would he have imagined that he would be communicating with the weaker sex. But the woman speaks good Pashto and he wants to get this over and done with, so he answers her.

"Your man over there tells me you need help finding Al-Nazri," he says, nodding in the direction of the soldier, who has resumed his previous position. "You are aware of how dangerous he is? And difficult to find?"

"Yes, we are. But we really must find him. He needs to answer a few questions about an incident in the USA."

"What did he do?" the man counters, weary of her reply.

"I'm sorry, we are not…"

Suddenly, Steve finds his voice, low and steady. "Tell him, Lieutenant. Maybe it'll help."

Catherine nods, looking at Steve. "He planted a few bombs and killed thirteen innocent people. We need to bring him to justice."

The man sighs, seemingly deep in thought, and turns to Steve. "You are angry."

"Very. I want him." There is no mistaking Steve's facial expression. If the man is going to trust them, they may as well trust him, too.

Turning to Catherine again, the Afghan man serves her some more chai, smiling at her, urging her to drink it. "He is a very bad man. He's responsible for the deaths of many people in the villages around Khayfan. Children, too."

"We know, and we're very sorry for that," she says, looking down, imagining how hard it must be for David to fight Goliath here. "Maybe we can help."

"Pray Allah you can," he goes on, and suddenly looks at her with a faint smile in his face. "He showed up in the village yesterday. He has many friends and allies who hide him and provide shelter. I heard a rumour that he needed money to cross over into Pakistan, to go into hiding. His friends are busy with that."

"Who are his friends? Catherine asks, afraid of interrupting the man's monologue.

"Al-Qaeda. They know the terrain here very well, they have money, weapons and vehicles. Everything we do not," he finishes, with a sad look. "But you don't want to hear that, right? There's a trail that heads into the mountain, I think that's where they went. On the other side, they'll have people to help them cross over, and they'll vanish. It takes three days to reach the other side of the mountain, by foot. But you can go around and capture them when they come out the other side."

"Where exactly is this exit? I'm guessing it's not exactly visible for all to see?"

"It's called the 'Infidel's Pass," he says, getting up and moving to the side of the small stove. He removes a piece of paper from a drawer and sits back down, looking to Steve, handing him the map. "There, see," he says, eagerly, pointing to a hollow in the terrain, "this is the entrance to the Pass, on the other side. It'll take you a full day to reach it, by car. You start early tomorrow morning, tonight is too late. Dangerous and dark, you'd be spotted in no time, they'll have lookouts everywhere on these mountains." And with that, he gets up again, motioning to the exit.

Catherine and Steve get up and head for the exit, thanking the man for his help, praying silently that no harm will come to him for helping. Steve hands over the cloth he had brought and the man is visibly emotional, thanking him profusely. The women appear again, curious as to the exchange that went on between the Afghani man and the Americans. They wave to Catherine and disappear again into the small house, never exchanging a single glance with Steve.

In the military vehicle headed back to base, darkness descending upon them, the other soldiers relate what other tidbits of intel they were able to get from the other villagers they talked to, giving Steve an idea of the number of men and types of weapons Al-Nazri has at his disposal. By the time they get back to the base, it's dinner time and the soldiers salute the both of them, disappearing into the darkness immediately after. Steve sighs, starting to feel hungry, aware that he must report to Captain Hamilton, as agreed between the two. He drops Catherine off at the CIA building and heads for Captain Hamilton's office, feeling cold and tired, yearning to get the briefing over with. However, by the time he reaches his destination, the whole floor is steeped in darkness, and no one is about. Steve sighs, annoyed that he wasn't able to reach the man in time, aware that he won't be able to get an early start the next day. As it stands, there's nothing he can do about it, right now, so he goes in search of Catherine, eager to have some dinner and, maybe, a serious conversation.

1 shirt/pantsoutfit

2 turban

3 dress with loose-fitting pants underneath, that goes down to the ankles

4 shirt