The Londum Omnibus Volume Two (The Londum Series Book 12)

by Tony Rattigan

  As they watched it turned into the wind and slowly sank towards the ground. As it approached, men came out of the ‘railway sheds’ and ran forwards to meet it. It descended towards the open space between the office block and the sheds until it came to rest and the men on the ground grabbed the ropes trailing from various points on the superstructure and tethered it to the ground. It was smaller than the sheds, only about 250 metres long and fifty metres wide, according to the scale on Jim’s binoculars.

  Once it was secure, a stairway was lowered from the centre of the machine and some men, in what appeared to be Rooskian naval uniforms, came down it, to be greeted by Grenko and company.

  ‘Do you have any idea what we’re looking at here, Jim?’

  ‘Well, I’ve only read about these things in science fiction stories but I think it’s what novelists would call an ‘airship’. It’s essentially a big balloon but inside that structure are numerous bags filled with hydrogen not hot air. Because they’re sealed up, you’re able to inhabit the inside of that airship. You can have cabins and dining rooms and whatever else takes your fancy. At least according to Jules Vernon Wells, that is.

  ‘But what I can see is that thing hanging under the airship, which is called the gondola, is where it is controlled from. The propellers control its speed and direction and are run by a steam engine somewhere inside, you can see the funnels on either side of the airship.’

  ‘Isn’t hydrogen explosive?’ asked Domingo, his expensive education showing.

  ‘Yes, that’s why they would have to be extremely careful but I suppose all the crew compartments are actually sealed off from the hydrogen bags that give it its lift. I imagine that there are bulkheads sealing them off, like you find on a ship.

  ‘But nevertheless, it’s a fantastic war machine, if we could only get the plans to that and get them back to Albion, that would be a feather in my cap. And not to mention a hefty reward coming your way too.’

  ‘I’m surprised Albion doesn’t have them already. You seem to invent everything else.’

  ‘Maybe we have and they’re keeping them secret, I hope so. In any event it won’t hurt to have a look at the enemy plans to their secret weapon, find out the weak spots.’

  ‘It’s an awesome thing though,’ admitted Domingo.

  ‘Yes, imagine it, in the night you could gently and quietly drift over an enemy’s headquarters or fortified position and just drop bombs on them. They would have no warning that you were coming. It would be devastating.’

  Domingo said, ‘Oh, you mean it would be “silent but deadly”?’

  Maybe it was the tension but they looked at each other for a moment and then they both burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles, like children, laughing at the ‘fart joke’.

  When they’d calmed down Jim said, ‘Well, there’s no doubting that you were educated at an Albion Public School, with schoolboy humour like that!’

  ‘So they’ve got maybe six of these stationed here I reckon,’ said Domingo. ‘That’s what the sheds are for I imagine, one for each of them, either finished or still being constructed. But why here?’

  ‘Well you said it yourself that although this is the Ukraine it’s still Rooskian territory. So where better to do your construction work than at a forward base? It is hidden and out of the way but it is not buried deep in the heart of Rooskia, from where it would take you days to reach the enemy, by which time they’d be ready for you. Here, you are close enough to spring a surprise attack on your enemies by quickly crossing the border.’

  ‘I see your point. So, what’s the plan?’

  Jim looked up at the sky. ‘Well, it will be dark in a couple of hours. Let’s go back to the horses, have something to eat and then wait until it is fully dark. We’ll go down there, have a snoop at what’s in those sheds and then break into the office block. With luck we’ll find a safe and then the treaty.’

  ‘Do you see any guards around?’

  ‘No. I guess it would be too man intensive to put guards all round the circumference of the bowl, that would take hundreds of men, so they’ve probably just got roaming guards. I suggest we move the horses off the hill and back quite a way, say about a quarter of a mile. They probably don’t patrol that far out.’

  Domingo nodded agreement and the two of them slid away from the brow of the hill, out of sight and made their way back to their horses.

  (Of course there had to be airships in the story, it’s set in an alternate Universe. There are always airships in alternate realities. Look at Fringe on TV or The Golden Compass, they’ve all got airships in.)

  ***

  Jim and Domingo didn’t want to risk lighting a camp fire so they ate a cold but hearty meal, it was going to be a long night so they made sure they stocked up on calories to keep them going. They had camped about quarter of a mile back from the hills surrounding the bowl. They had unsaddled the horses to rest them but re-saddled them before they left, in case they came back in a hurry and needed the horses ready and waiting to go.

  They checked their pockets; they were travelling light and only carried their guns, knives and binoculars, except Jim had his lock picks on him too. They set off once night had fallen and made their way to the brow of the hills surrounding the bowl. It was a bright, cloudless night and the moonlight illuminated the bowl like it was daylight.

  Lights were on in the office block, the accommodations and on the train. The sheds were dark and silent so they decided to check them out first. Keeping within the tree line they made their way to the rear of the large, imposing sheds.

  Dotted around the sides and rear of the sheds were small, man-sized doors, fortunately. Jim didn’t want to have to contemplate rolling back one of those massive sliding doors that were at the front of the shed.

  He and Domingo made a dash for the nearest of them and Jim expertly picked the padlock, securing it. They quickly slipped inside. What they saw made their jaws drop as they looked around. Glass windows had been fitted in the roof to allow daylight into the vast, dark caverns of the shed but on a bright night like this enough moonlight came through for them to see the scale of the building. It was like being in a cathedral, it was so massive. But perhaps more impressive was what it contained, almost filling the gigantic space.

  It was a half completed airship. The skeleton was made out of steel, which had been finished, but the internal layout was still being completed. The gondola was still under construction and the body of the airship had only been partly covered in the canvas or whatever it was that they used for a skin.

  It reminded Jim of whale carcasses he had seen in the Arctic. The whalers had killed the animals and then dragged them to the beach where they had cut out the skin and internal organs, leaving just the denuded bones.

  He could just make out some oil lamps on a nearby bench. Walking around the shed he approached a dark shape along one wall and using his lighter for illumination he saw that there was a fair amount of inflammables such as oil for the lamps, paint and thinners. That might come in handy, he thought.

  Touching Domingo on the shoulder he beckoned for him to follow him out of the building. Quietly and carefully they entered the remaining sheds and found the same situation in all of them except the last, which was empty. Logically the empty shed belonged to the airship they could see, tethered in the open area, the strip of earth where it had landed, the ‘Landing Strip’ Jim supposed one might call it.

  That must be the prototype tethered out there, while the other five sheds contained the ships under construction, giving them a total force of six when they were finished. Six should be enough to defeat the Deutschen forces.

  Now for the office block. They checked it closely with their binoculars and could not see any lights on, they had spent some time in the sheds and now everyone must have retired for the night. Not wanting to just walk across the open area from the sheds to the buildings, past the guards on the tethered airship, they returned to the tree line and walked around the circumference of the bow
l until they reached the closest point to the office block.

  They made a dash to the office block and waited to see if anyone had spotted them. After a few minutes it appeared that no one had seen them so Jim let them into the building. They worked their way through every room until they came to what appeared to be the manager’s office on the top floor. It had large windows looking out over the bowl and was the only one that contained a safe.

  ‘Right,’ said Jim. ‘This is my bit, take a look round while I’m doing this will you? I might be a while.’

  Domingo nodded and began to search through the other rooms for anything that might be useful.

  Jim put his ear to the safe door and spun the dial. He had it open within minutes. Emptying out the contents, he took them over to the window so he could examine them in the moonlight. He searched through and found what he was looking for. The treaty!! They’d obviously locked it in there for safe-keeping, suckers, they didn’t know Jim Darby was around.

  He pocketed it and then looked to see what else he could find. Bingo! Detailed blueprints of the construction of the airships. Jim couldn’t believe his luck. Why didn’t all his robberies go this successfully? He couldn’t make out what the others were, they were in Rooskian probably, so he shoved all of them into his pockets and closed and locked the safe. No point in advertising his presence. He was just standing up to leave when Domingo came back into the room. ‘Jim, I think you should see this.’

  Curious, Jim followed him down the corridor. He stopped outside a door, which he made a point of showing Jim, was bolted on the outside. He slid back the bolt gently and opened the door. Then he invited Jim to step into the room.

  Unsure of what was going on, Jim pulled his gun and stepped through. There was only a small window set high up in the wall and after the bright moonlight in the manager’s office, it took a moment for his eyes to adjust.

  The room was empty except for a solitary person, sitting quietly on a chair in the middle of the room. Astonished, Jim leaned in for a closer look. It was Rubicon!

  He raised his pistol and pointed it at her face and cocked the hammer back but then common sense took over. He lowered his gun and looked at her more closely. She was gagged and tied to the chair. Her eyes looked pleadingly up at him over the gag.

  Baffled he looked at Domingo but he only shrugged, equally confused. Jim wriggled the gag free from her mouth and asked her,’ What’s going on? Why are you tied up?’

  ‘Mr. Lewis. What are you doing here? Have you come to rescue me?’

  ‘Mr. Lewis?’ asked Domingo.

  ‘I’ll explain later.’ Jim took a deep breath and recovered his wits. ‘I said I’d look you up the next time I was in town. I wasn’t sure about having that drink though, as I thought you’d gone over to the other side.’

  ‘No, they captured me after our exchange and held me in the embassy. When it was time to leave, they drugged me and took me with them on the train, in a crate. You have to get me out of here.’

  Jim quickly untied her restraints and helped her to her feet. She was a bit unsteady at first. ‘Can you walk?’ he asked her.

  ‘I’ll bloody well walk out of here!’

  ‘Good girl,’ he encouraged her. ‘We have some horses stashed about half a mile away but it’s over a hill and through a forest. Do you think you can manage that?’

  ‘Don’t worry about me. Nothing is going to stop me getting away from here.’

  ‘Here, you’d better take this,’ said Jim, removing his overcoat and handing it to her. She quickly slipped it on, grateful for its warmth.

  Jim and Domingo took her arms and led her down to the ground floor and outside the building. They listened carefully but there were no signs that anyone was aware of their presence, so they ran for the wood. Carefully they retraced their steps to where they had left the horses.

  When they arrived back at their camp, they let Rubicon rest before taking to the horses.

  ‘Do you have any food?’ she asked. ‘They haven’t been feeding me anything but scraps, and then only occasionally.’

  Domingo hurried to get some food and drink for her out of the saddle bags. As she ate, Jim filled her in on what was going on. ‘I guess introductions all round are in order. My name, my real name, is Jim Darby; Michael Lewis was just a cover name. This is Domingo Sandor. He’s a ... business entrepreneur let’s say, from Budapescht. He knows about you and the robbery at the embassy and the treaty, everything. What’s more he is risking his life to be here tonight to save you, so you can speak freely in front of him.

  ‘This, Domingo, is Agent Rubicon who I told you about.’

  ‘Call me Marla.’

  ‘This is Marla, who I came to rescue and recover the treaty until I saw her with Count Seretsky. Care to explain to us about that, Marla?’

  Marla paused with her hand half way to her mouth, looking at both of them in turn. She could see that they didn’t completely trust her, despite how they had found her. ‘Well, I got picked up a few streets away from the park where we made the exchange. They grabbed me and bundled me into a carriage. Until tonight, I thought it was you that had sold me out, but of course this rescue disproves that theory. Unless this is some really elaborate double bluff.’

  ‘No one followed me to the park, I made sure of that,’ Jim assured her. ‘They must have already known the meeting place and that didn’t come from me.’

  ‘So I guess it was one of my people that betrayed us, sorry about that. At least now I’ll have a chance to put that right.

  ‘They took me back to the embassy and held me there until they decided to go back to Rooskia. When it was time to move, they doped me up and put me in a crate for the train ride. Although I was conscious, I was too far gone to cry out for help. Where exactly are we by the way?’

  ‘We’re in the Ukraine, near a place called Shepetivka. It’s halfway between Ternopil and Zhytomyr,’ explained Domingo.

  ‘I’m still none the wiser,’ she told him.

  ‘Did they interrogate you?’ asked Jim.

  ‘Not much, it was if they already knew everything important and could wait to ask the big questions. They said they would wait until they were back in Rooskia to interrogate me properly.’

  ‘Did they ... did they hurt you ... in any way?’ Jim asked her, delicately.

  ‘No, they didn’t touch me but Count Seretsky took great delight in telling me that once they had tortured every last drop of information out of me, he would hand me over to his men for ... for their amusement.’ Her voice broke and she sobbed, ‘I was so scared I’d never get away!’

  Jim stepped forward to comfort her but Domingo beat him to it. He took her hand and muttered something gently in Ungarian to her. She looked up at him and, probably relieved to find a sympathetic person who spoke to her in her own language, threw herself into his arms and sobbed into his shoulder as he whispered soothing words to her.

  After a few moments she had recovered enough to step away from Domingo. He handed her a handkerchief to dry her eyes. She thanked him and turned to Jim. ‘Did you recover the treaty? I know they locked it in the safe in the big office.’

  Jim smiled and patted his coat pockets, ‘Not just the treaty, I’ve also got plans for the airships and some other stuff. What do you know about the airships by the way? Did they talk about them in front of you?’

  ‘Well, I know they’ve only got one so far, it’s a prototype. They’re still building the others.’

  ‘Well that’s good to know,’ said Domingo.

  ‘If you’ve recovered enough, Marla, I think we should be getting a move on,’ said Jim. ‘Once they’ve discovered you’ve escaped they’ll be scouring the countryside, looking for you.’

  Domingo packed up all the stuff and brought the horses over.

  Jim helped Marla up onto his horse while Domingo climbed onto his. Jim held out the treaty and the plans to Marla. ‘Make sure these get to Thornton Wells in Munchen. He’s staying at the Hotel Konigshof.’

&n
bsp; ‘What do you mean? Aren’t you coming with us?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes,’ said Domingo, ‘what are you doing?’

  Jim waved the treaty which Marla hadn’t taken. ‘You don’t really think that this little bit of paper will stop Rooskia do you?’

  ‘But I thought that the plan was to embarrass them into giving up the idea of war?’

  ‘You know,’ said Jim. ‘I’ve been puzzled all along why the Rooskians have got it into their heads to start a war with Deutschland now, when things have been quiet for so long. Then I saw the airships being built. That’s why they are doing it, they think the airships will give them an edge and make then unbeatable. And they’re probably right too.’

  ‘So what can we do about it?’ asked Domingo.

  ‘Well, I’m going to go back and destroy those airships. Without that advantage they may think twice about starting a world war. I want you to make sure that Marla gets to Munchen safely. Will you do that?’

  ‘But they’ll be waiting for you.’

  ‘I don’t think so. I don’t even think that they know I’m here, or you. They’ll just think that Marla has escaped and is legging it through the country side. They’ll be searching out there.’ He pointed away from the bowl. ‘I’ll be back there,’ he pointed over his shoulder, back towards the bowl. ‘They won’t be expecting me and all their efforts will be focussed on recapturing Marla.’

  Domingo got off his horse and started unbuckling the saddle.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Jim asked him.

  ‘Well, the horses need to be let loose, if they are found they will know there are more people in the area, and it won’t be fair to them to leave them saddled. They’ll be found eventually and someone can give them a home.’

  Marla asked, ‘But won’t you need them to get away when you come back?’

  ‘You don’t think we’ll be coming back, do you?’ Domingo replied.

  Jim said, ‘Now wait a minute, I can’t ask you to risk your life anymore than you have already. This isn’t your fight. I want to finish the game, call it professional pride, but you’ve done your bit. You got me here and now you can leave, honour satisfied.’