The Taliban & the Soldier

20 years of fighting. Teaching the locals. Thousands of lives lost or destroyed. Then Kabul fell in just two weeks. For many veterans, this was the last straw, their sacrifices and pain all for nothing.

It started out as a routine patrol. The only difference was the new man, a young Lieutenant, straight out of Sandhurst. He didn't know the reality, only the theory.
"Stop, Sir!" Corporal Ben Noon yelled out, panic in his voice, already knowing it was too late.
He watched as the officer pulled open the wooden door, praying that he was wrong, knowing that he was right. Time seemed to stretch, every movement taking forever. It was that easy. One second of lost concentration, and it was all over.
Blackness.

A rebuilt Ben Noon wanted to put things right, to give Veterans like himself a meaning, a value, but the only way to do this was to build bridges with his old enemy. An enemy that had stolen his life, left him a cripple. To deal with the devil. To cut cake with the Taliban.