The Lion and the Baron

by Simon Brading

  The items dealing with the squadron in general were far outnumbered, though, by those that were at the far end of the room and which dealt with just a single one of their pilots - Gwen. They weren’t, however, limited to what was widely available, but included things of a much more personal nature.

  Her face was everywhere, clipped from newspapers and magazines and culled from what looked like private photos. Interspersed among them were articles dating back more than a decade and report cards from her school and university. He even thought he spied a pile of clothing in a corner, but he hoped that he was mistaken.

  Drake turned to Gruber for an explanation, but the man didn’t see him; he was too busy staring at one of the photographs, the official one of Gwen in her uniform after she’d joined the RAC, the same as was in every pilot’s file. ‘I fought against the Misfits in France, then over Britain and now over Muscovy. It seems as if we are destined to keep meeting, to be eternally circling each other, the fate of the world in just our hands. But it wasn’t until Gwen Stone joined them that I felt truly challenged... Who was it that said “know your enemy”?’

  ‘Sun Tzu, but there’s more to the quote than...’ Drake said, but Gruber wasn’t listening and continued speaking over the top of him as he made his way over to a small table to one side of the room near another door, where a few browned and rumpled newspaper clippings were laid out for him. There were also a few typed sheets of paper and Drake caught a glimpse of what looked like the British parliamentary crest on them before Gruber shifted the newspaper articles to cover them.

  ‘I’ve painstakingly collected every piece of information available about Officer Stone since she joined the Misfits. She’s so much more than just a pilot, though, and that’s not nearly enough to get an idea of who she really is, so I have men trawling through stacks of old newspapers for mentions of her.’ He waved to the clippings. ‘You wouldn’t believe the amount of times she appeared in the press as a child! I have reports of conferences she attended with the photographs to match, notifications of awards at school and university, and there was even an entire article in the New Aviator dedicated to her after she took her first flight.’

  He turned away from the table and took a small handheld projector from a shelf, one that reproduced movies from the portable cameras that had gained in popularity over the last decade or so. It was the type which incorporated its own small screen, less than a foot across, and when Gruber wound the handle images started to flicker on it. ‘I also have this.’

  The quality was surprisingly good and as Gruber held it up by its pistol-grip for him, Drake bent forward to peer at it. ‘Is that...?’

  ‘As far as I can tell, this is the only appearance of Gwenevere Hawking on film.’

  Gwen was smiling broadly as she looked into the camera and waved. She was young, only a year or two older than when he’d known her. She was with her parents and all three dressed in their Sunday best, but were without shoes, standing as they were on tatami mats within a Japanese-style building, in front of a huge painting depicting a crane in flight across a cloudy sky.

  The scene lasted something like twenty seconds, then blacked out. There was a whirring noise as the thin film strip was taken back to the beginning by the machine, then it began again.

  ‘This is footage from a Société Aéronautique conference in Kyoto in 1927, shot by a Prussian aviation enthusiast. I forget his name. She was nine at the time and it was the first time she addressed the society as a whole.’ Gruber shook his head in wonder. ‘I’ve never come across anyone like her. The Misfits were falling apart before she arrived. They were no rival to us in France and we barely suffered any losses to them, but then over Britain...’ He sighed. ‘She is special. Oh so special...’ Gruber trailed off his eyes fixed on the movie as it played over and over.

  ‘You sound like you’re in love with her.’

  Gruber’s face suddenly twisted into an expression of such hatred that Drake had never seen on the silver screen, not even when the Prussian actor had been playing the villain. ‘No! Never!’

  As quickly as it had appeared, the expression was gone and Gruber sighed again, dropping his head, then went on, as if Drake had never spoken. ‘All this information and I still don’t understand her,’ he busied himself putting the projector back in its place. ‘Which is why you’re going to tell me everything you know about her.’

  For a second Drake was struck speechless by the nerve of the man. ‘And if I refuse?’

  ‘That would be in nobody’s best interest. Least of all Praporshik Guseva’s.’

  Drake opened his mouth, intending to say something like you wouldn’t dare, or call him a name, but stopped himself just in time; that was too melodramatic, too much like one of the obnoxious man’s awful movies. Instead he said nothing and just let his eyes and the hatred in them speak for him.

  Gruber laughed. ‘You are reluctant to carry out what you perceive as a betrayal of your friend, I wouldn’t expect anything else. However, I assure you it is no such thing. After all, what possible use could I make of the kind of personal information you could give me?’

  When Drake began to answer, Gruber held up a hand to forestall him. ‘I don’t need your answer right away. I doubt I’ll be seeing the Misfits for a while because by the time they find out I’m here it will be too late for them to respond. I’ll be busy for the next days, possibly weeks, so think about it.’

  He glanced at the steward, who Drake hadn’t noticed hovering in the doorway, and the man came over gave a small bow. ‘This way, sir.’

  Drake nodded politely to Gruber, but the man had already turned back to the press cuttings and didn’t see it.

  Chapter 16

  The guards collected Drake at the door to the Barons’ mess, but Drake barely noticed them; he was too busy brooding over Gruber’s “request” for information about Gwen.

  It wasn’t as if he had much knowledge of Gwen that could damage her, if any; as he’d told the man before, they’d been friends as children, but had lost. However, it seemed that the man wasn’t satisfied with that, or at least the man’s obsession wasn’t satisfied with that, and it wasn’t likely to be until he was sure that he’d gotten every little tidbit out of him.

  He’d already half resigned himself to working at the capstans for the rest of his life, forced to help Gruber and the Prussians, but this was a step too far. He toyed with the idea of refusing to work and getting himself thrown out of a hatch; better a quick end than a slow decline until death. However, it was unlikely that Gruber would allow that and with the threat of harm to Tanya being held over him he wouldn’t even attempt it.

  He sighed; there was really no option but to give the man wanted and hope that he wouldn’t be able to glean something useful from it.

  By the time they got down to winding room three there were only two sailors still awake, yawning while they played cards. The guards shoved Drake towards them, then left, laughing.

  The rose to take custody of him, but he knew what was expected of him and went straight to the bathroom to get changed, eager to get to sleep.

  Five minutes later, the sailors bundled him into the pressure room and began the laborious process of sealing one door, then crossing the room to unlock the next. Drake tried not to follow their conversation, but it was impossible in the confined space and he was forced to listen, disgusted, as they spoke about how the last woman who couldn’t work, a Pole, had begged for her life before they’d thrown her off the airship.

  There was a clunk and a slight hiss as the door opened and the guards motioned for him to go through. Their attention was fully on Drake, so they didn’t see the two ghostly figures appear outside the door and they never did.

  Tanya was the first in and she took the man furthest from the door, crushing his windpipe with a single blow and then holding him and lowering him gently to the floor as his face slowly darkened from lack of oxygen. She was followed by a big man, who Drake recognised as one of the other recently arriv
ed Muscovites, a bomber pilot captured on the southern front. He moved far quicker than a man of his size reasonably should be able to and wrapped his arm around the other guard’s neck. The unfortunate Prussian clawed at his assailant’s arm ineffectually, his eyes bulging as the life was squeezed out of him.

  It was over in seconds and then Tanya stalked towards him.

  He couldn’t help but flinch as she grabbed his arm and began pulling him towards the door and the darkness beyond.

  ‘Are the other guards awake?’ she asked with some urgency.

  ‘What?’ Drake blinked at her, not understanding.

  She sighed in exasperation. ‘The other guards in the outer room, Rudy. Are they awake?’

  Drake shook his head. ‘I didn’t see them, I think they’re asleep.’

  Tanya nodded in satisfaction and spoke to the big Muscovite, who grunted and gave the limp Prussian in his hands a final squeeze before letting him tumble to the ground.

  Drake paused in the doorway and turned to stare down at the two dead men. ‘Wha...? Why?’

  ‘Stop gaping, Ace and get out of the bloody way, we don’t have much time.’

  The voice in his ear startled Drake and he spun around to find Askwith just outside the door with François beside him. In the dim light he could just about make out a crowd of people waiting on the stairs behind them.

  ‘What the hell...?’

  ‘Just shift your arse and come out here with me, there’s a good chap, I’ll explain everything once things are moving along.’

  Drake stepped through the door and hurriedly flattened himself against the railing to one side with Askwith as four or five men and women hurried past him into the room. After a moment, Tanya joined the two of them. She was laden down with supplies from the lockers within the pressure room, including masks and insulated clothing. The others soon came back out carrying more equipment, including a pair of glidewings which they gave to Tanya, and the two bodies, which they began stripping of anything useful. Once they were clear, François and the other men and women surged forward to crowd into the room and once it was full to capacity they closed the door after them.

  Drake was left momentarily blind in the sudden darkness, but from the murmuring he could tell that there were more people on the stairs - it seemed like every single one of the denizens of the winding room had been there waiting for him.

  He turned to Askwith, or at least towards where he thought the man was. ‘I thought you said there was no escape from here!’

  ‘No, my dear chap, what I actually said was that nobody had escaped from here, not that it wasn’t possible. We’ve had a plan for a long time, based on the information that man gave us, but no opportunity to carry it out. You see, the whole plan relies on knowing that the guards are going to open the doors during the night, when they’re not expecting anything, but they’ve had no reason to do that until you arrived. Gruber toying with you has given us the opening we need.’

  Drake nodded, despite knowing nobody would be able to see him. ‘That sounds reasonable, I supposed. But you,’ he rounded on the presence beside him that was Tanya. ‘You knew about this, didn’t you? Is this why you were so, uh, well, you know, last night?’

  ‘We had a meeting while you were gone to discuss this, so yes, I was feeling a lot happier, but what happened between us had nothing to do with that.’

  ‘Good.’ Drake smiled, relieved; he wouldn’t have wanted the events of the night before to have been the result of a temporary impulse on her part - it had meant something for him and he hoped that it had for her as well. ‘But why didn’t you tell me about the plan when I got back?’

  ‘Ted told me not to.’

  ‘Sorry, old bean,’ interjected Askwith, ‘we couldn’t risk you giving the game away.’

  ‘You know I wouldn’t talk!’

  ‘Yes, I know, I never thought you would. But you’re also a bloody bad actor. If I remember right from those skits you and the lads put on before we shipped out, you’d get all nervous and sweaty and the blighters would know something was up.’

  ‘I wouldn’t!’

  ‘You would, Rudy.’ Tanya chimed in.

  ‘I...’ Drake started to protest her betrayal, but then he remembered his poor showing during the various escape attempts and sighed. ‘You’re right. I probably would.’

  The lights in the winding room came up slightly, just enough to see by, but not enough to take away night vision and Drake found Tanya gazing intently at him.

  ‘What?’ he asked.

  She smiled. ‘This time it’ll work, Rudy. This time we’re getting away.’

  Drake mirrored her smile and opened his mouth to speak, fully intending to say something that would undoubtedly come out too soppy and that he’d probably regret later, but the moment was lost when the pressure room door hissed open and the next group of men and women began rushing in.

  When the room was full the door closed, leaving prisoners still standing on the stairs, waiting to go through. There were far fewer of them, though, and Drake could see that it would only take one more trip to get them all out. However, beyond taking care of the sleeping sailors in the guard room, he had no idea what they were hoping to achieve.

  He turned to Askwith. ‘So, what exactly is the plan?’

  ‘We’re going to storm the other winding rooms, kill the guards and cripple the ship.’

  Drake couldn’t help laughing. ‘Easy as that, eh?’

  ‘Actually, yes.’

  Askwith nodded earnestly and Drake blinked, taken aback. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes. As you might have noticed, the Prussians are just a tad overconfident in their position here - there are no guards in here at night, nobody watching us, and you’ve just told us that the two who came with you were the only ones awake. They think they’ve got us safely locked away and probably don’t have any plans in place for if we get out. Taking this room has been easy and we’re pretty sure that we’re going to be able to do the same with the others.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘Then we jettison the springs using the handy control panels in the guard rooms.’

  Once again Drake found himself lost for words; it was so simple and so effective. The Prussians had unwittingly put their prisoners in the one place where they could easily do the most damage to the ship. Without its rotors it wouldn’t crash, unfortunately, because its gas bags would still hold it up, but it would be at the mercy of the winds and would be forced to land.

  He nodded. ‘Good plan. What can I do?’

  ‘You’ve already done your part, all you have to do now is make your escape when we’ve done ours.’

  Drake glanced at the glidewings at Tanya’s feet. ‘I’m assuming we’re going to be using those.’

  Askwith nodded silently.

  ‘There aren’t enough to go around, though, are there?’

  ‘Not even close, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Then who goes and who stays? And who decides?’

  ‘We took care of that last night - the only people who are going to jump are the ones who haven’t been here long and are still strong enough to have a hope at surviving.’ He indicated the small group surrounding them. ‘That means you, a couple of Muscovites, a Norwegian, and a Pole who flew for us and was shot down over France a few weeks ago.’

  ‘Alright...’ Drake nodded slowly, reluctantly accepting the logic. It was likely a death sentence for those who stayed behind and fought, but the capstan was a living death anyway, so they had nothing to lose and all to gain and in the end they had made the choice he had contemplated but couldn’t bring himself to make.

  Askwith shrugged with a grimace. ‘I don’t like it much either, but there’s nothing else to do and it’s not as if it’s going to be plain sailing for you either. Since we have no idea where we are and we only have your information about being on our way to Italy, the only plan we could come up with was to get to the ground in as isolated a place as possible while it’s still dark and try to find so
mewhere safe.’

  ‘Actually, I can help with that - Gruber showed me exactly where we are.’ Drake grinned at Askwith’s astounded look. ‘Yes, the bad guy did explain the plan to the good guy just before the good guy gets away.’

  Askwith shook his head. ‘I swear that man thinks real life is like the movies...’

  ‘Ah, but does he know that he is the bad guy?’

  Tanya’s question gave both of the men pause for thought, but then Askwith grinned. ‘I’ll ask him when I see him; we intend to fight our way up to the hangar and steal a cargo aircraft for the survivors.’ He looked at Drake. ‘So, where are we then, Ace?’

  ‘Just off the east coast of Sicily, near Syracuse. Malta is only a hundred miles to the south west, though, and, by the look of those glidewings, I’m fairly sure they’re powered - from this height the trip will be uncomfortable, but it should be doable.’

  Askwith frowned. ‘I’m not sure it’s worth the risk, but I’ll let the people who jump from the other winding rooms know that’s a possibility and they can decide for themselves. I’m fairly sure most people will probably opt to go for Sicily and try their luck there, though, there might be some kind of resistance movement and they can always try to steal a boat and go to Malta that way.’ He stared at Drake for a long moment, assessing him, then smiled wryly. ‘You’re going to try for Malta, aren’t you?’

  Drake glanced at Tanya, but she just shrugged as if to say it was up to him, so he turned back to Askwith. ‘Yes. Yes we are.’

  ‘I wish you luck then.’

  The pressure room cycled behind them and the last of the prisoners filed into it and held the door open, waiting for Askwith to join them.

  The British pilot held out his hand and Drake took it, but instead of releasing him straight away, Askwith pulled him in close. ‘Let the world know we’re here, let them know what the Prussians do to their prisoners.’

  Drake nodded. ‘I will, sir.’

  Askwith smiled in satisfaction, then stepped into the pressure room. ‘There will probably be an alarm of some sort when we release the springs, so we’re waiting until we’ve taken all the winding rooms and releasing together. You’ll know we’re about to do it, though, because we’ll reduce the pressure in here beforehand. If all goes well it shouldn’t take long, so I suggest you get dressed and have your masks ready.’ He winked and went to throw his weight on the door, but stopped. ‘Oops. Almost forgot.’ He drew himself up to attention. ‘Good luck, Aviator Lieutenant Drake.’