Free DARKNET CORPORATION by Ken Methven

wide enough for more than one car. Ledge surmised that
cars were mostly parked here and people walked the rest of the way.
    “Minor road?” came back Ledge, “it’s only about six foot wide.”
    Ledge described the architecture. It was pretty medieval. Most of the
alleyways were never built for anything but foot traffic. The centre of the
town was single story mudbrick hovels side by side. They had rough window
openings and many had only ventilation holes in decorative patterns. Despite
this slum-like deprivation it was very clean. There was no rubbish, but it was
still pretty smelly.
    Most of the buildings on the outskirts of the town were walled compounds
with both large courtyards and two storeyed buildings, varying in size from
modest to stately. He came to a fork and asked Bill which one to take.
    “Keep right,” said Bill, “you are about four hundred metres to go, but
the road snakes around a bit.”
    Ledge reported the road straightening out again after the corners and
said, “ There’s only a few compounds along here. It
must be one of them.”
    “You are about 100 metres,” Bill advised.
    “OK. Then I have eyes on the one it is. It stands on its own. There is
vacant land around it, then no other buildings for a while down this road,”
Ledge reported.
    “How far away is the nearest cover? Over,” Bill asked.
    “About 50 metres on one side of the road, but the compound on the
opposite side of the road is maybe only 20 metres. There’s
also other compounds at the back, higher up, with the closest maybe 25
metres or so, but they’re not accessible from this road. There are terraced
fields in between.”
    “The compound is big. It’s about 25 metres frontage at the roadside. It’s
got a double door entrance and it looks like there’s a two storey gatehouse or
whatever. Impressive. Then it goes back about 50
metres up the hill. There’s another two storey building
further back with a dome roof . It has a window opening, but it’s on the
second story. The main building is about in the middle of the compound and the
back looks like it’s a courtyard. Can’t see much from this
angle.”
    “The four-wheel-drive must be just inside the double gates. It’ll be a
parking courtyard in front of the main part of the complex,” Ledge suggested.
    “I can see an armed lookout on the wall further back. I can’t go any
further along here without sticking out like dog’s balls. There’s nothing along
there. I’ll stop at the compound across the street and go back. It’s as close
as I can get without being suspicious. Out.”
    Ledge was worried that if he looked out of place and someone came out to
investigate him from the compound he would be found out immediately. He quickly
looked down the side of the property opposite and took in as much as he could
without loitering and turned back the way he came and walked at the same pace
he had come.
    “I am going to walk around where the compounds at the back are to see
what kind of vision we can get on the target. Out.”
    Ledge walked back along the road until he found the narrow little street,
nothing more than an alleyway, going to the right curving back up the hill. He
followed it until there was a junction with another lane, going off to his
right that would lead back towards his target. When he reached the end of the
street there was only terraced fields and an outlook over the target compound.
Luckily at this time of the day the Sun cast shadows from the high walls and he
was able to sit down, as if to catch his breath, and survey what he could see from
this elevated position.
    The two storeyed building in the centre of the compound obscured the
gatehouse, but he could see a door and windows looking out onto the rear
courtyard. There was only one sentry who walked the perimeter of the walls,
armed with the ubiquitous Kalashnikov. He timed and took note of the sentry
taking about five minutes to go right around the entire wall. He also noted
quite a bit