Ahmed Ali

Ahmed Ali was a member of the Taliban who was the right hand man of Vladimir Nikov for a time.
== Biography ==
Ahmed was born to a Pashtun family and basically brought up to join the Taliban. He was seen as a disappointment by his father as he was the youngest son, but did not achieve as much or work as hard as his older brothers. He was also very interested in Western culture, getting his hands on a mobile phone as a teenager and being a bit obsessed with Western video games and movies. He even got an American aid worker to teach him English. Despite this, he still joined the Taliban as he wanted to do his family proud, but this never really warmed them to him and he wasn't respected by his new comrades either.
In 2014, the Russian mercenary Vladimir Nikov came to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban and Ahmed would be assigned as a guide to him because of his proficiency in English, and because it wasn't considered an important job. Despite this, Vlad and Ahmed quickly developed a bond as it turned out that they were both enjoyed a lot of the same films and even video games, plus Ahmed was one of the few locals Vlad met that wasn't a radical Islamist. Ahmed even saved Vlad's life on a couple of occasions and so he was basically enlisted by Vlad as a permanent companion, where he would receive training and a good pay check, all the while not being seen as expendable. 
Unfortunately, this couldn't last. Some of Ahmed's old schoolmates who had also joined the Taliban saw how successful he had become because of the investment of a foreigner and became incredibly resentful. They would pressure Ahmed into becoming a suicide bomber, claiming it would be the best use of him to serve the Islamic cause, and Ahmed's own father and brothers even encouraged this. Obviously Ahmed refused, but this would not save him. In 2018, he would be kidnapped and handcuffed inside a car that would be sent into an American convoy and blown up.
This was an important event for Vlad, who would betray the Taliban after this and start his own independent mercenary company.