The Double Agents (Men at War 6)

“Thanks,” he whispered.

Just then, a few feet away, there came the sound of a boat scraping on pebbles. Canidy turned in time to see the bow of Nola’s kayak coming out of the darkness, then the silhouette of Nola himself as he maneuvered the boat parallel to the shore and, with catlike grace, leapt out and landed on his feet.

Nola then picked the bow of his boat up high and, with very little sound, moved the entire boat onto shore.

Canidy did likewise. Then he looked up and down the beach. There were no lights except from the stars, and he saw absolutely nothing inland but darkness beyond a distance of maybe ten feet.

He heard Nola’s boots crunching toward him.

“I know precisely where we are,” Nola whispered. “Is a popular bathing beach. And a ten-meter cliff is close by. Is where I told you there are small grotta— the caves—where we can hide the boats. Vergine Maria—”

“Virgin Maria?” Tubes whispered excitedly.

“Not that kind of a virgin,” Canidy said drily. “It’s the town’s name.”

Even in the dim of darkness, Canidy thought he could see disappointment on Fuller’s face.

“Vergine Maria is where we are,” Nola went on. “And, from here, is only two kilometers to my cousin’s house in Palermo.”

“Good,” Canidy whispered. “Let’s get our gear moved up there.”

He then took a tentative sniff of the still air. It had a pleasant, salty smell mixed with the light fragrance of some flowering foliage he did not recognize.

Not a hint of stench of the dead.

“How’s Adolf and Eva?” Canidy whispered.

Tubes checked the pouch.

“Active movement,” Tubes said, the hint of a smile in his voice. “I think they’re procreating.”

“You would.”

Canidy saw that the folding boats were fairly easy to collapse —Glad I didn’t know that offshore, he thought—then hide in two of the small caves in the cliff. Certainly not as easy as the rubber raft had been—that one he had deflated with a slice of his Fairbairn, then buried it in a small hole.

Farther down the cliff, they hid one of the green suitcase radios by itself in a cave. Moving with one of the cases without being seen was going to be hard enough. And stashing the other provided them with a backup in the event that the other was confiscated, broken, lost—whatever. They could retrieve the hidden case the next night, or even later.

And that took care of the evidence of their arrival. They had no worry about leaving tracks. The pebbles of the shore filled in naturally behind them as they went.

Canidy stood with his black duffel bag, the strap slung over his shoulder. Nola carried a small black leather bag in his left hand, the box of mice in his right. And Fuller, his duffel on his left shoulder, held the other suitcase radio in his right hand. He had tied the pull string of the mice pouch high on his duffel strap, the pouch itself touching his chest.

“Anyone have a cigarette?” Tubes suddenly whispered.

What? Canidy thought.

He hissed, “You can’t light up! You could get us shot by coastwatchers!”

“It’s not for me,” Tubes whispered casually. “I don’t smoke.”

He held up the pouch and dangled it by the string in front of Canidy’s face.

“Judging by their relaxed state, they would appear postcoital.”

Canidy relaxed, then caught hims

elf about to chuckle.

No, not good…Need to focus.