He screwed his face into a Scottish grimace, something he often did when faced with difficult questions. “We haven’t seen any aircraft landing… apart from the Adler and the helicopters. Unless they were already here, of course.”
“Were there any other planes in the hangar?” Kat asked, peering through the field glasses again. “There are certainly quite a few people walking around.”
“I thought I spotted another plane when they were putting the bomber away, but I couldn’t be sure. The Adler’s so big, I assumed I’d made a mistake. Anyway, top brass would arrive in a Junkers 52. It’s the only plane that could make it all the way from Tunis.”
“Then how did they get the helicopters here?”
“Refueling posts. Helicopters can land anywhere.”
“So you think the airfield has guests?”
Dore stared at her. He definitely thought about this, which worried her. If Jock was concerned, they all should be. “I can’t think of any other reason they’d patrol the area.”
“No, nor can I,” Kat said. “The sooner we’re in those caves, the better. Where’s the Jeep, Atkins?”
“It can’t be seen from the air. You’ve found caves?”
“Yes, but it’s too dark to go there now. We’ll have to move at first light. The helicopters won’t takeoff until sunup. We must have just missed them when we landed.” She frowned. “But how could they miss a parked DC-3?”
“Maybe they only patrol a ten-mile radius,” Kelly suggested. “There might be enough fuel for the Adler, but the helicopters must use a different kind of fuel. They’d have to conserve it for the Junkers.”
“Well, I hope you’re right. I’d hate to be confronted by a welcoming committee.”
Everyone was still asleep when Kat woke the following morning. They’d decided not to erect the tents. If the helicopters takeoff at first light, they might be seen. Laying their sleeping bags beneath an ancient cypress tree, they’d all slept under its thick foliage.
Kat woke to find Kelly lying beside her, his face a picture of innocence. She reached across and shook him, studying his face as he slowly woke.
“I was dreaming about Berlin,” he croaked, “but you weren’t there.”
“I know, I was in the desert with a bunch of weirdos. Did you see your uncle?”
He smiled a curious smile. “No. I was on my own in Alexanderplatz. It was horrible, it was completely destroyed.”
“I’m sure it’s not ruined. Berlin’s too far away to bomb successfully.”
He sat up. “That’s what the Germans think about this place, but by the sound of it, you’re going to bomb the bloody hell out of it.”
“Can you two shut up?” Dore murmured. “Some of us are trying to sleep.”
“Some of us should be waking up,” she replied. “This isn’t a day off.”
Dore sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Bloody women,” he grumbled.
“Wake everyone up, Jock. I’m going to check the airfield.”
The sun was still below the horizon when she reached the ledge, and the airfield was as quiet as the grave. Half asleep Guards were positioned around the perimeter, their rifles slung over their shoulders, or leaning against the intermittent posts. There were lights on in the canteen and a few people moved around. Getting up again, she went back to the cypress tree. Capetti rolled up his sleeping bag, as the others just stood around.
“Oh good, you’re all awake. If you all pile into the Jeep, I’ll walk to the caves. You can follow me.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Kelly said. “We need to talk.”
She glanced at him, but waited until the Jeep was following behind them before she spoke. “So what’s on your mind?”
He surprised her by saying, “I’m not really worried about flying the plane. Aerodynamics is aerodynamics, and jet engines just a more powerful way of driving the plane forward. I’m sure the controls won’t be simple, but unless Jock throws him off the plane which I gather he did on the Junkers, we’ll have a pilot, and I’m sure he’d rather fly the plane than have his brains blown out by a mad Scotsman.”
“That makes sense. So are you worried about breaking into the airfield?”
He shrugged. “I’m a pilot, not a hand-to-hand combat veteran. I’ve only ever fired a gun in basic training.” He laughed. “And I missed the targets most of the time. God knows how I’ll react if I’m confronted by a German with a machine gun… or a dagger.”
“You kill them or you bleed.” She grinned at him. “I was shot in the butt once, and from experience, it’s something I strongly suggest you try to avoid.”
Sam showing concern asked, “My god, was this in battle?”
Kat thought about the encounter and said, “actually, I was at a party at Buckingham Palace when it happened.”
“You’re kidding!” he said in disbelief. “You were shot in Buckingham Palace?”
“Yeah, I know,” she chuckled. “You’d think the King would invite a higher class of people to his shindigs… Go figure…”
Wanting to know more, Sam delved deeper. “So did they catch the person who shot you?”
“They couldn’t miss him. I left him in a pool of his own blood before I set Buckingham Palace on fire.”
“You did what?”
“Look. It was a busy night, and I had a lot on my plate, what with the Palace Guards trying to machine gun me.”
“Good god almighty Kat. Is your life always so eventful?”
She gave a little shrug. “Yeah, it can get a bit tricky at times. Like when the King had me tried for treason and I escaped the Tower Of London just before I was to be executed.”
Kelly just looked at her dumbfounded, unable to say another word as they arrived at the ledge that led to the caves. “We’re here, guys!” she yelled. “Park the Jeep under that tree and follow me!”
Waiting until they’d unloaded the Jeep, she led them along the narrow trail, once again in awe of how thousands of years of countless feet had worn the rocks incredibly smooth. “You’ll love this, Sandro!” she called back. “We’re sleeping in an art gallery that’s older than Rome!”
Lighting the kerosene lamp, this time Kat walked deeper into the caves. The passageway narrowed, widened again, and then suddenly expanded into a huge cavern. To her surprise, the floor was perfectly flat. There was a soft ambience. Light was getting in from somewhere. She looked up. High above them, a jagged fissure allowed a little light to get in. With any luck, when the sun came up it would become even brighter.
CHAPTER 18
“Bugger me!” Dore exclaimed. “That thing is bloody huge.”
They were all lying on their stomachs, watching the monstrous plane being towed from the hangar, its wide, V-shaped wings glistening in the morning sun. It looked like some huge predator. With its huge, under-slung engines, it reminded Kat of a giant golden eagle.
She listened as the jet engines started. Initially they made a strange, almost soft rushing sound. As the pilot increased the engine thrust, they sang, emitting a high-pitched whine. The plane began to move, and the whine climbed half an octave. Compared to the roar she’d heard when it’s in flight, the bomber is remarkably quiet. She watched in fascination as it taxied slowly to the takeoff point. The engines’ thrust climbing and dropping again as it turned to face the runway, its engines seeming to wobble on the imperfect surface.
She studied the plane for access points such as the undercarriage where the wheels would retract, or bomb bay doors, which it would certainly need, but they were looking down on the plane and it was impossible to see. They needed to be down at ground level. She scanned the ground at the base of the
rock face, littered with giant boulders and rubble from the construction of the runway. There were certainly places to hide.
“Bloody hell!” Atkins said. “It’s like watching the Queen Elizabeth takeoff, or HMS Vanguard. How’s it going to get off the flipping ground?”
The Adler’s engines began climbing to a high scream and the huge bomber surged forward. The scream became a roar, and then a bellow as the plane picked up speed at an astonishing rate, rushing headlong down the runway towards the desert. Then it was airborne, the roar of its engines echoing around the mountain peaks.
“Santa madre di Dio!” Capetti exclaimed, as the Adler climbed steeply into the pale blue sky, its wings glistening as it banked around. “Incredibile.”
“Not sure if incredible is a big enough word,” Dore said, getting to his feet. “It’s a little short of mind-boggling. And we have to fly that thing?”
“No, we have to fly it,” Kelly said, wagging his finger between him and Capetti. “And if I were you, I’d pray.” He grinned, “Because it’s probably like flying a tank.”
Kat watched as the plane disappeared from sight behind the mountains, although she could still hear it. Did it bank around again? Because the dull roar of its engines wasn’t going away. She thought of the bombs they’d seen loaded onto the Adler. Was the Adler going to test its destructive power, out here in the desert, away from prying eyes? She felt a stab of excitement. Wouldn’t that be something, watching the Adler dropping bombs, seeing its destructive power first hand?
She waited with bated breath, the roar growing louder and then louder, until the roar became a crackling furnace. When the Adler suddenly reappeared, it was perhaps a mile away, flying low over the desert. The plane so huge, it felt like a hundred yards, almost as if she could reach out and pluck it from the sky, this flying leviathan. She glanced at Sam. He looked shocked, his mouth open, eyes shining with excitement.
Even in years to come she would never forget the shock she felt when the desert suddenly erupted. Because it didn’t just erupt, it was like the parting of the Red Sea, pulverized clouds of rubble shooting hundreds of feet into the air. A cluster of bombs trailed from the Adler’s fuselage and sweeping the desert floor with a cacophony of deafening explosions. The plane climbed and banked away, and in that moment, she glimpsed the bomb bay doors. Unlike a conventional bomber, the open doors revealed a hexagonal slit in the plane’s underbelly. At least, it looked like a slit from this distance. In reality it was probably as big as a truck.
Open-mouthed in awe, she said, “I want that plane.”
It was getting dark when Dore and Atkins came back with the Thompson submachine guns. Guards already in place along the airfield’s immediate perimeter and the camp’s lights blinking on. The Adler, back in its hangar, an ominous dusk settled in the silent mountains, as if the mountains could sense what was about to happen and were holding their breath. The group discussed at length what they were going to do. Kat, Kelly and Capetti would make their way down to the plateau in the deepening twilight, creep as close to the Guards as they dared. Once dark, they would flash a, we’re there signal with a flashlight. Using sound suppressors and subsonic ammo, Dore, Stewart and Atkins would take out the first three Guards. If no one noticed, Kat would lead Kelly and Capetti into the camp from behind the Officers’ Mess.
With a single objective, they were to make their way to the hangar. Under the circumstances, it was unlikely to be locked. They needed only to find a way inside and inspect the Adler, preferably with enough time to check out the flying controls. However, if they found the hangar guarded, it would be a different proposition all together. They would have to kill the Guards and hide the bodies.
“Of course, that might not be so easy,” Dore said. “It might be better to hide their bodies in one of the Junkers.”
“You ever carried a dead body,” Kat said, glancing first at Dore and then at Kelly, who was all of five foot eight. “They weigh a ton.”
“You don’t carry them, Lass. You drag them by the feet. There are three of you. I’m sure you’ll manage.”
“Well, get ready for a long night,” Kat said. “It could be 0100 before we can do anything.”
“The ball’s in your court, Lass. Signal when you think it’s quiet enough.”
“So tonight’s the night?” Sam nervously asked.
“Exciting, isn’t it? Chin up, this is when the fun begins.”
CHAPTER 19
The rock face enclosing the western flank of the airfield wasn’t at all what they expected. Thirty feet down, it became an impassable overhang, forcing them to climb back and find a different route. No wonder the Germans weren’t worried about being attacked. The plateau was almost impregnable… almost, but not completely. Working their way along the rock face, they found a narrow crevice that overlooked the Officers’ Mess. It wasn’t a simple climb. Halfway down, it came to an abrupt end.
“Where the hell do we go from here?” Kat whispered. “We’ve now got a fifty-foot drop.”
“Follow me,” Capetti hissed.
Working their way along a narrow ledge, they discovered that the cliff face crumbled away and became steep scree, held in place by smaller monoliths. Slowly, they descended, a tricky climb that finally took them outside the airfield again. Concealed by a series of rocky crags, they waited. The nearest Guard was only two hundred yards away. They would have to wait until dark.
Kat scanned the area. Over to her right she saw the Adler’s takeoff point, and beyond it, mounds of rubble, left over after building the runway. It promised ideal cover when they came to steal the plane. She studied the Guards. Silhouetted by pools of light, they were spaced out every fifty yards. With any luck, they wouldn’t cry out when they were shot. If they did, the game was up.
“How are we going to signal Jock?” Kelly whispered. “We’re beneath the overhang. They can’t see us.”
“We’ll have to crawl clear,” Kat whispered. “So long as we’re quiet, the Guards will never know we were here.”
“And getting back?” he hissed. “We won’t even find that crevice, let alone climb it.”
“We’ll have to wait until we can see. The Germans will still be asleep.”
He grimaced. “The other Guards won’t be. And if we can see, so can they. They’ll see the dead Guards.”
“No they won’t. If they bother to look, they’ll see sleeping Guards.”
Fully dark now, the sky a mantle of brilliant stars, and the German street lights were blinding. The Adler’s hangar looked as if lit by spotlights, when in reality it was quite dark, only the hangar doors illuminated by two overhead cabin lights. Kat pulled her peaked cap over her eyes and averted her gaze. It was easy to understand how wild animals could see in the dark, it was never really fully dark, but human eyes took time to adjust.
She looked at her watch. The luminous dial read close to midnight. Time to make a move. The airfield camp was deathly quiet now and had been since 2300. Lights still showing in the Officers’ Mess, and she wondered if anyone was in there.
“Sam!” she whispered. “Sandro! It’s time to make a move. I’m going to crawl halfway to the nearest Guard and signal Dore. Then we have to wait. Until we’re inside the camp, this will be the last time we speak. All you have to do is follow me.”
Crouching down, she lowered herself onto her stomach and felt her way through the low scrub. Slithering over sandy mounds, into small craters and past boulders that often concealed scorpions, she crawled within a hundred yards from the nearest Guard. She rolled onto her back and withdrew a flashlight being careful to shield the lens with her hand, hands were opaque. Kat took off her cap and wrapped it around the lens. This was it. Two flashes of the flashlight and it would all begin, the nightmar
e that Kelly dreaded.
Holding her breath, she blinked the flashlight on and off.. And waited.
Nothing.
She blinked the flashlight on and off again. And waited.
Nothing.
Wonderful, she thought. They’ve fallen to-bloody-sleep.
A thought occurred to her, if the Guards were to die silently, they would have to be shot in the head. Could Dore, Stewart and Atkins achieve that over such a distance? Rolling onto her stomach again, she drew the suppressed .45. Pistols weren’t as accurate as rifles, but the Guard was only a hundred yards away. If she rested the gun on a rock and took careful aim… She aimed at the forehead of the nearest Guard, but she eased her finger off the trigger. She couldn’t afford to miss, she needed to be closer. Holstering the gun, she began to crawl. Ten yards, twenty, thirty, forty… She stopped at fifty yards. How could she possibly miss? Kat drew her pistol again and took careful aim, took a breath and held it, and squeezed the trigger.
Futt!! Blood sprayed into the overhead light. The Guard collapsed.
She grinned in the darkness. Kat thought to herself, I love this bloody thing! Beats the heck out of sticking them with a bloody knife. One Guard down, two to go. She squinted at the next Guard another fifty yards away. Shifting her position, she took careful aim, but the man turned and propped his rifle against the post. She waited until he sat down and leaned against the post. She took aim again, the .45 rock-steady. Again, she took a breath and held it, slowly squeezing the trigger.
Futt!! A noisy explosion of blood.
She glanced at the distant Guard, he was asleep on his feet, his head nodding as he leaned against the post. If they were careful creeping into the camp, she didn’t need to take him out. Rolling onto her side, she signaled Kelly and Capetti and crawled towards the first Guard. The body lying on its side, eyes wide open, a trickle of blood running down the forehead. She wondered whether to sit him up, until she realized the back of the head had been blown away. It would have been a messy procedure.
Kat and the Desert Eagle Page 13