As bullets clawed the air around us and screams echoed down the rubble-strewn tarmac, I felt almost peaceful. It was a simple mission, they had told me - get in, shake a few hands and mouth a few platitudes, get out. Simple. Yeah. Things had started going wrong while we were still in the air and only gotten worse from there. So here we were, pinned down, choking on the acrid tang of cordite and the heady scent of human blood. The mission was even simpler now: survive. Whatever the cost, survive. There was a grunt and a clatter of...