After ten minutes of crawling, he had a good view of the house and peered once again through his binoculars. The cottage was old, grey stone that had made it hard to see, with two outhouses facing into a courtyard at the rear that looked across an open field. It didn’t look like anyone was home; there were no discernible lights and no vehicles around the property.
Frank fished for his handheld communications radio and held it close to his mouth.
“Charlie-two-zero Alpha…This is Echo Sierra five niner. Radio check, over.”
Silence.
“Charlie-two-zero Alpha…This is Echo Sierra five niner. Can you respond, over?”
Still, there was no answer. Frank checked the radio settings once again and went through the same routine. When that failed, he put out a general call:
“Charlie Charlie…anyone the
