I said, “The plan isn’t complicated, it's simple. We’re going to bust through the Vaugeois cavern wall, and into the Marbot cave system. Then it’s a straight shot up through to the mayor’s house. Cleaning up whatever we find on the way.”

Nazari said, “Bust through how?”

Daniel was in the back, sitting on a chair with his bird gun. He spoke quietly, “We’ll use a sledge hammer.”

I said, “That’s correct. Two things to prepare first, the precise entry point, and weapons.”

Daniel fetched a couple of tacks and pinned up the maps so we didn’t have to hold them. The double sheets hung at the window, making the room feel like a command center. I thought it improved the look. A sense of deja vu was nagging me. But I’d seen a whole bunch of maps hanging on walls in my service career, no big deal.

Gilles had used graph paper sheets for the surface map. He had made a little map key at the bottom, which showed scale. Since we were in France they counted in meters, and each square on the graph represented five of them. I counted out the squares, from the cave entrance over by the Vaugeois’ bedroom, to the part of the cavern adjacent to Marbot’s cave system.

The excavation closest to Marbot’s was a section of tunnel. It was the long, old and dark tunnel I’d seen before. Counting along the right-hand wall, the best access point would be sixty-two and a half squares from the door. That was three hundred and twelve odd meters, give or take. A meter is like an extended yard. Like taking a really big step instead of just a big one. I’d need to go deep in there.

Daniel had a click wheel for measuring off garden areas. We’d use that. I figured that the measurements could not be incredibly precise. We would have to wing it to some extent.

I turned to the weapons. We had four H&K MP5s and the two Beretta M9s. Bonnet had his Sig-Pro, and Daniel had his Chapuis bird gun. I put the H&Ks and the Berettas on the table. I wanted Nazari and Daniel to strip the weapons and clean them. We had rags and cotton swabs and coat hanger wire, but we had no gun oil in the house. Daniel had some for his double barrel, so he went down to the gatekeeper’s house to get it. He slung the Chapuis over his shoulder. Didn’t need cleaning because he had not used it.