Jenna's warning came at noon.
Not through the shortwave. Through Diana's encrypted channel, a single compressed data packet that expanded into twelve words when Diana ran it through the decryption protocol.
She read it twice. Then she came to find Francis.
He was in the main room with Hale going over the property maps for the third time, tracing contingency routes, measuring distances against realistic movement speeds in current snow conditions. He looked up when he saw Diana's face.
She handed him the phone.
RUSSIAN OPERATORS REPOSITIONED OVERNIGHT. CURRENT VECTOR PUTS THEM WITHIN FORTY MILES BY NIGHTFALL.
Francis read it. Handed it to Hale without comment.
Hale read it and set the phone on the map table and looked at the topographic lines in front of him as though they might offer
