Gates Of Hades

Chapter Twenty-six

Silanus, Sardinia

That night

The day seemed interminable, as long as those days Jason had lain in hiding before a night operation. Only this time he had little equipment to check and recheck to pass the endless hours. Jason and Adrian had decided that only one person at a time should keep watch, the other three remaining invisible in the cavern's recesses. Whether caused by darkness or apprehension, anxiety in the cave had reduced conversation to monosyllabic whispers and grunts. Even so, Jason feared they might be overheard by an unseen prowler.

When evening's shadows finally flowed across the small valley, they brought relief to the tension like flotsam on an incoming tide.

Twenty minutes after the first star winked on, Adrian surveyed the area with the nightscope. "Sodding rotters still surrounding the house, far as I can see. Now's as good a time as any for whatever you plan to lay on."

Jason retreated to the far reach of the cave, a flashlight in one hand, his BlackBerry in the other.

"You canna get satellite reception back there," Adrian reminded him.

"Don't have to. I'm inputing a text message. Once I'm done, I'll step outside and send it."

Adrian cocked his head. "An' jus' to whom would you be sendin' such a message, the U.S. Marines?"

Jason's grin was visible in the flashlight reflecting from the stone. "Close guess."

"An' those blokes down there." Adrian jerked his head toward the cave's entrance. "You're betting they have no way of intercepting or tracing…?"

"Omnidirectional. If they had such equipment, it would tell them the message came from all three hundred sixty degrees. Second, transmission time to the satellite is in the nanoseconds, less time than it takes a lightbulb to go dark when you turn off the switch. Someone staring at a direction finder wouldn't even have time to see the indicator move. Finally, it's encrypted. Anyone listening in would hear only a single beep."

Adrian's eyebrows arched. "All this in a simple BlackBerry?"

"It only looks like one."

Finished, Jason moved to the front of the cave.

"Be careful," Maria whispered as he crept by.

"I'm not even going all the way out," Jason said, extending an arm through the opening. "There, done."

"That quick?" she asked.