The Double Agents (Men at War 6)

“Where’s the girl?” he said.

Fuller shrugged.

“She left when Frank and I went upstairs,” Tubes said.

She’s not off telling anyone about us, is she?

“Do we need to worry?” Canidy said. “Is she dependable, Frank?”

“Yes, as good as me.”

Jury’s still out on that one, Frank.

But so far, so good.

He looked at Fuller.

“Messages go out okay, Tubes?”

He nodded.

“But I think you need to see this,” Fuller said.

He held out a handwritten decrypted message.

Canidy read it quickly.

“Great,” he said. “I guess.”

“What?” Nola asked. “Is good news?”

“Fine says that Rossi’s notes state that the Tabun shells are clearly marked. The cases are stenciled with ‘T83’—just as we saw—and the shells themselves are marked ‘GA,’ with a ring of green around the tip.”

“But most of those crates did not have the T83,” Fuller said.

Canidy nodded. “Yeah, there were a bunch of regular howitzer rounds in there. So how the hell are we supposed to get a look in the crates with the T83 designation and confirm the GA and the

green ring?”

Then he smiled.

We don’t have to confirm it.

“What is it?” Fuller said.

“Need to shoot a message to Le Casa,” Canidy said.

He looked at his watch and began thinking out loud: “Not going to make 2115. And, even if I ran, I’d probably miss 2315—”

Fuller figured out what he was doing. “You’re leaving?”

Canidy nodded. “But 0115 would work. Time to get to Mondello, then paddle out. And if I miss that, 0315 is my backup. Meanwhile, there should be plenty of excitement out at what’s left of the villa. Enough for diversion.”

He saw that Fuller and Nola were regarding his ramblings oddly.

“Sorry about that,” Canidy said, then asked Nola: “How are they coming with the loading of that ship?”

“One of the booms broke,” Nola said. “Is taking longer than they wanted.”