He soon came to the edge of the forest and the clearing in front of the farmhouse, which sat about two-hundred metres in front of him, a large log pile immediately in front obscuring his view and, hopefully, that of any watchers as well.

He tucked himself down behind the log pile and took stock of his situation, again with close observations to his sides and rear, taking in the view in the half-light. His plan was to get to a viewpoint from the edge of the forest and observe until the light had completely gone, whereupon he would move up to his close observation point, which he was estimating to be about fifty metres from the farmhouse. From there, it was a case of a few hours CTR and then he would make an assault plan, depending on the intelligence obtained from the previous observations.

He took his water bottle from his day-sack and took a long drink before stowing it away again, ready to go.

*

He lay down behind the log pile and slowly leopard-crawled to its edge, giving himself his first view of the front of the farmhouse. It was a long single-storey building with a slate-tiled roof and parking for four cars on a block-paved area to the front. It had three bedrooms, a single bathroom and a large kitchen diner with a log burner that was also used as a sitting room. The small lounge was rarely used. The front door sat squarely in the middle of the building but, like most houses in rural areas, it was never used, remaining locked and bolted with a heavy curtain drawn across on the inside. Tom could never remember anyone accessing the building using the front door; all visitors naturally would go over the hard-standing and along the path to the back door, where the house had a large garden that backed onto livestock fields. The garden was put to good use by his foster parents, with chickens in a large run and coop at the rear, and vegetable plots that kept the family in fresh produce most of the year. A small decked area with a table and chairs sat at the rear of the house, accessed by a set of French windows that were used infrequently.

From his position he could see the front of the house and the leading edge that led to the back door, where any enemies would most likely emerge from.

He ideally wanted a viewing point that would give him a visual on the back door. This meant that, once it was fully dark, he would move about a hundred metres across and adjacent to the track to give him a side-view of the house with a profile-view of the back door. This would also protect him from any casual glances that anyone may take from any of the windows.