Free DARKNET CORPORATION by Ken Methven Page A

of smoke and steam emanating from the rear courtyard and caught a
whiff of a nasty, acrid smell.
    Ledge continued relaying everything he saw in as much detail as he could.
Bill and Mickey listened intently, getting a good impression of the layout.
    He estimated the height of the walls at about 3 metres, with a few
ventilation holes, but no opening other than the front double gates. There was
a row of small bushes down from the rear compound marking the boundary but they
were only infrequent and small. Not really a hedge, just a line of bushes
interspersed with open space. He guessed that the distance from where he was to
the rear of the target compound was probably 30 metres.
    Finally, he decided that if he stayed where he was any longer he was
going to use up his luck and moved back down the shadow of the walls to the
lane, making his way north out of the town.
    When Ledge re-joined his comrades Bill said, “Well done Legend, you’re a
Legend. What do we know then? “
    Ledge said, “It’s pretty clear this is their lab. They’re obviously
refining the morphine base into heroin. Is this the kind of hideout that Monarch would use?” Bill was not convinced.
    “The only way we will find out is to go look,” said Mickey.
    “Fuck. We can’t go knock on the door and ask!” Ledge was only half
sarcastic.
    “I’ve got a plan. It was brewing away while you were coming back, Ledge,”
said Mickey.
    “We’ve got that pin-hole camera. All we need to do is poke it into the
ventilation holes or make a hole in the mudbrick walls and have a shufty with the camera. If we spot Monarch , we call
it in and bugger off.”
    “How thick is that wall,” asked Bill.
    “From experience, a wall that high, could be a foot and half, maybe, half
a metre,” replied Ledge.
    “And how do we get a hole that deep through the wall?
    Ledge said nothing but held up his forefinger and went off to the mobile
armoury and rummaged around for a minute. When he came back he said. “ Tah Dah!” showing an u-shaped piece of steel tube with a
ball the size of a tennis ball on one end at 90 degrees to the ‘U’ and a bend
in the opposite side half way up. “You remember we used this in Banyan
province?” he said to Mickey.
    “Ah! Yes!” replied Mickey, almost as triumphant.
    It was an old-fashioned Whimble brace. Before the advent of electric
drills this was what passed as a drill. Ledge also had a long metal piece in
the other hand, which was a drill bit or auger. It had two small blades facing
forward and curved in at the tips. Ledge fitted the metal rod into the brace
and gave it a couple of turns to demonstrate it. “You can slice through
mudbrick with this like a hot knife through butter.”
    He went back to the SORV and came back with the endoscopic pin-hole
camera on the end of a long snaking flexible coil.
    Bill thrust his chin forward, nodding, pleased.
    They developed a plan, with Mickey in a lookout position at the building
across the front road and Ledge in the same position he had observed the sentry
at the back. Bill would approach down the line of bushes at the back boundary
and drill holes into the mudbrick on each side looking for signs of Abu Ukasha .
    Bill realised that he might have to get almost right around the compound
and be there for some time to drill several holes in order to cover all the
spaces Abu Ukasha could be in, but that was what may
be required.
    The chance of being observed by the sentry on top of the wall meant he
would have to keep close to the wall at all times and only move when the
lookouts could choreograph his timing to when the sentry was unsighted.
    They decided that they would also need the cover of whatever gloom the
late part of the day could give them. They needed enough light to spot their
prey, but as much cover of darkness as they could get. It was a delicate
balance.
    They calculated when to start out to gain maximum advantage of the
setting Sun on site and cooked up a meal while they