The sign on the cages in Bellanova’s bird loft read GOVERNMENT PIGEONS, FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. A stone embrasure let sunshine into the tower room, illuminating a table used for scribbling coded messages. Confiscated terrain maps drawn before the mapmakers’ union strike showed the borders, roads and terrain of Colodor.
Bolo had discreetly slipped into a Communist sergeant’s uniform with a red star in his cap. He printed a message on a tiny pigeon slip, very careful with his script. Dear Governor, Pedrito Miraflores just captured the entire province of Bellanova. Complete rout. Comandante and all government forces in full retreat. Signed—sole survivor.
Bolo rolled the message like a cigarette paper and stuffed it into a tarnished tin cartridge. He grabbed one of the birds from the Official
