Harry on the Run

by Steve Turnbull

  In the distance, she could see vehicles heading out towards the broken Zeppelin. And beyond them was Mombasa. The post office would be open but they wouldn’t be stopping. She scanned the skies. The trail of smoke was thinning but she could still see it rising into the distance, the plane itself was nothing but a dot.

  They had to go faster. As the slope became steeper she reversed her direction and went down backwards. Then the netting came to an end. And tied to a metal hook sticking out from the envelope was a rope that hung limp and went down out of sight.

  Johannes was still following. He seemed to be quite an intelligent and decent fellow, for a German, but lacking in imagination. There had been no reason to follow in the spy’s footsteps, they knew what he was going to do.

  Harry grabbed the rope and let her weight transfer to her arms. She hooked her legs around—it took a couple of attempts—and allowed herself to slip down. Without gloves she could not go too fast, but it was better than climbing. The rope jerked and she looked up. Johannes was on it too.

  She could see the ground, and there was the Ostrich pumping smoke and steam with Sellie standing beside it. Harry waved. Sellie frowned and gestured for her to hurry up. Harry grinned and kept moving.

  She was grateful for reaching terra firma and ran across to give Sellie a hug. “Well played with the Faraday.”

  “Did you damage that little flyer?”

  “Yes, we need to get after it. Spy. Plans. That sort of thing.”

  “She’s ready to run, Harry.”

  Johannes hit the ground and sprinted in their direction.

  “Is he on our side?” said Sellie.

  “I think we’re on his side at the moment.”

  “Very well.”

  The sound of the approaching vehicles was filling the air. Harry looked over and saw the gate guards on the running boards. They had guns.

  “Get aboard, Feldwebel-Leutnant Johannes Schönfeldt,” she said. “Otherwise we’ll lose him in the time it takes to explain.”

  “I can’t leave the airfield, I do not have my papers.”

  “Just get aboard you idiot! Or we’ll go without you and take all the credit ourselves.”

  He boarded. And Harry squeezed in behind him. If there were any shouts telling them to stop, they were drowned out by the engine.

  Harry settled herself while Johannes crammed against the side trying to give Sellie enough room. Unfortunately, things were so tight the girls could not help but bump into him whatever they tried to do. It was quite inappropriate.

  “Engage!” shouted Harry, but she felt the motors powering the wheels almost before she’d spoken. Sellie hadn’t waited. Harry pushed the power regulator halfway and the Ostrich jumped into motion.

  It accelerated across the bumpy grass. It was singularly uncomfortable but there was no time to waste. Harry found one of the regular tracks which was slightly flatter. Something pinged off the body.

  “Harry, they’re shooting at us!”

  “They don’t know it wasn’t us that brought down the Zeppelin.”

  “With respect, Miss Harriet, Miss Khuwelsa, it was you.”

  “Look,” said Harry, “if you’re not going to remain positive and helpful you might as well get out now.”

  The grass was rushing past the window.

  “I believe I will remain onboard and be more positive. Grundgütiger!” His sudden explosion was due to Harry barely missing a horse-drawn carriage that pulled out from behind a building.

  Harry increased speed.

  The buildings came at them. Harry swerved around one and then another. Johannes found the steam klaxon and started yanking it to make sure people got out of the way before they arrived.

  “Hang on!” shouted Harry.

  The main gate loomed up ahead. The metal barrier was down. Harry aimed directly at the far wall.

  “What are you doing?” said Johannes so far beyond fear that his voice was quiet and seemingly unaffected.

  There was a six-inch kerb. The Ostrich hit it at breakneck speed and bounced into the air. On the walkway beyond was a pile of sandbags for protection against rioting and assassins. The Ostrich’s wheels hit them and the machine bounced higher.

  Harry closed her eyes. This was the craziest thing she had ever done in a lifetime of crazy. The left-side wheel hit the wall of the guard building. The suspension compressed then the front struck it and they rebounded. As the old carriage suspension responded it pushed them away and the Ostrich flew over the barrier but they were turning and would land at too flat an angle.

  Johannes threw himself to the left of the tiny cabin and leaned out of the doorway, gripping the top of the frame with his fingers and his toes just inside. The right-hand wheel touched down and they shot forward balanced on the one wheel. Harry turned right gently and the weight of the Ostrich moved between the wheels. The other side came down with a thump.

  The sisters reached out simultaneously and grabbed Johannes by his jacket as his fingers came free of the frame. He wavered for a moment before they got him inside.

  “Neat trick,” said Sellie.

  “I sailed on the lake with my brother and father when I was young.”

  Harry focused on the road ahead. She pushed the regulator to maximum and the Ostrich picked up speed until it was rocketing along the road.

  ix

  Once across the bridge and off Mombasa island, Harry had turned north at the first opportunity. They had lost time but she knew the other bridge led to a track that would not allow them as much speed as they needed.

  Every now and then her hand would reach out and try to push the regulator further, but it was open all the way.

  “We need more speed, Sellie.” Harry kept her eyes glued to the road. They were going at such a pace that they simply flew over many of the holes that would have been troublesome at a lesser velocity.

  “Well, Lieutenant,” said Sellie. “It’s time for you to do some work.”

  “What are you doing, Miss Khuwelsa?” he said with a strange fear in his voice.

  “I am removing my dress, and I strongly suggest you remove any outer garments.”

  “Why?” There was a definite note of fear in his voice.

  “I am going to be opening up the furnace and you will be keeping it fed while I see what I can do to extend our speed.”

  “But why must you disrobe?”

  “These frilly bits can catch on fire. I do not wish to conflagrate—” Harry guessed that Johannes must have a confused look on his face as Sellie said “—catch on fire. And you might want to preserve your nice uniform from being consumed as well.”

  After which there was silence, someone bumped Harry in the middle of her back. The apology came from Johannes. There really wasn’t much room in the back and Harry suspected there would be further accidental touching. The lieutenant was such a stick-in-the-mud he would be mortified. Well, he needed to relax.

  She heard the shovelling with some metallic bangs and rattles going on in the back. She could feel the speed increasing.

  “Left turn coming up!” she shouted.

  There was a movement behind her and the weight distribution on the wheels changed. Someone brushed against her shoulder and she glimpsed Johannes from the corner of her eye, standing by the open doorway once more.

  The turn came. She took it as wide as possible to reduce the strain. Johannes leaned out. This time he was holding a rope. The left-hand wheel lifted from the ground gently, and Johannes stretched until he was lying out of the vehicle with his feet on the edge. Then Sellie joined him. She did not lean out but added her weight to that side.

  The left wheel came down again and they straightened.

  Harry looked ahead. “Bridge! Right turn!”

  Johannes swore in German as he pulled himself up and in. He had well-muscled arms, Harry observed.

  They mounted the bridge at whatever speed they were travelling and flew for perhaps twenty yards before coming down hard.

  “J
ohannes!” shouted Sellie. Harry had no time to look because the right turn was coming at them fast. She swerved to the left side of the road—there was a thump on the roof—and she took the Ostrich into the bend. She saw something on the right of the bodywork through the window. Johannes was outside and adding his weight to that side. Sellie jumped across and even Harry leaned into the turn.

  The Ostrich went up on the left wheel tilting further and further until Harry was sure they were going to go over. Finally, the road straightened and she was able to get the wheel down.

  “Stay out there, Johannes!” shouted Sellie above the engine noise. Then she spoke into Harry’s ear. “I’m going to lighten us.”

  <<>>

  Sellie took the three steps needed to get into the back. She looked dubiously at the severely depleted store of coal. Then grabbed a wrench and a screwdriver.

  She went back to the door and waved the screwdriver where Johannes could grab it.

  “What ... for ...” came his words, broken and ripped away by the wind.

  “Take it apart, keep anything that will burn!”

  Much of the bodywork was made with French plywood because it was both light and strong—and, though she was loathe to admit it, better quality than the British equivalent. She had made much of the framework from wood as well, because it was lighter than iron and she could make it the shape she wanted.

  And it would all burn.

  She hoped the balance between the weight lost against the streamlining would be in their favour. There was no way to know.

  Johannes managed to get the first board removed. She saw it whip away in the wind and heard a cry of pain from him.

  “Are you still there?” she shouted, worried he might have been knocked off the roof.

  “I remain.”

  Sellie held the next plank herself as he removed the screws and brought it down inside the body. The process continued. They weren’t losing weight yet. But once he had several planks removed she was able to attack the supports. She let them fall out.

  She took some time to stoke the furnace. The water level was going down fast as well. She had built a steam reclamation system—the boat they salvaged lacked one—but it was not efficient.

  Sellie looked into the sky. The trail of oil smoke in the sky was becoming more distinct as the Ostrich headed north.

  The dismantling process continued. Most of the coal was gone, and Sellie had Johannes sawing through the plywood planks to make them small enough to fit in the furnace. She wanted to remove the three feet of iron smoke stack, but it was too hot and the bolts wouldn’t shift with the expanded metal. The hacksaw would be a last resort.

  By the time they had finished, the entire body of the Ostrich was gone and the air whipped past them. She and Johannes were filthy and he seemed to have got over his embarrassment of them both being in close proximity in their underclothes. Needs must when the devil drives.

  “I can see him!” shouted Harry. They both moved to the front.

  Sellie looked around at the unfamiliar territory. “Where are we, Harry?”

  “We were following the coast for a long time then turned inland. How long have we been going?” She looked ahead at the dead straight track they were following. With the dead straight black oil trail above them.

  “Five minutes less than three hours,” said Johannes after consulting his pocket watch.

  “How fast are we going, Sellie?”

  She shrugged, not that Harry could see it. “Fifty, maybe sixty miles per hour?”

  “Not in Italian territory yet then.”

  “If we’re going inland then that’s not where he’s going.”

  “The flyers do not have the range.”

  Almost on cue, the trail being drawn by the black spot in the sky began to curve and descend.

  Harry reached out and yanked the power regulator to the bottom. The Ostrich slowed in response until it was coasting along at a crawl.

  Perhaps this could work.

  x

  “Do you think he saw us?” said Harry staring at the spiralling descent of the flyer.

  “Unless he is a blind man,” said Johannes. “Look.”

  Harry craned her neck round to see what he was pointing at. Behind them, a slowly falling cloud of dust stretched to the horizon.

  “Oh.”

  “But I don’t think he’s worried,” said Sellie. “Look.”

  Ahead of them, across the flat terrain, they could see two tents with an unidentifiable vehicle. Harry reached under the windshield and pulled out her spy glass.

  She peered for a minute then handed it to Sellie. “What do you think?”

  “It’s a Prinetti & Stucchi diesel six-wheeler with Faraday grid,” said her sister. “We’ll never catch it.”

  “So they are Italian,” said Johannes.

  “Probably.”

  “And there’s a machine-gun mounted on the rear,” said Sellie. “And one of theirs is looking at us. Binoculars. Powerful ones.”

  Harry eyed the descending plane. “Pity we didn’t do more damage than a minor oil leak, Johannes,” she said.

  “Yes,” said Johannes. “Perhaps we could have avoided such a lunatic journey and succeeded instead of failed.”

  “Failed?” said Harry.

  “We cannot chase them and we cannot fight them. My gun is empty.”

  Harry looked at her sister and grinned. “He thinks we’ve failed.”

  “Haven’t we?”

  “Did you look over there?” said Harry pointing to a big group of large grey animals tearing a small copse to pieces, while elegant long-necked giraffe chewed the leaves on the upper branches.

  Johannes looked. “I have never before seen elephants, or Giraffen.”

  “Elephants?” said Sellie.

  “Elephants,” said Harry.

  <<>>

  Harry let in the regulator and the Ostrich puttered slowly across the grassland. The plane had landed five minutes earlier but the Italians seemed in no hurry to leave. There was a lot of talking going on. One man continued to watch them through his binoculars but unless he could lip-read there was no way he could know what they planned. Sellie and Johannes had slid down into the grass to hide.

  Harry made a long arc. She glanced at the elephants. This group had a few young but not many. Hopefully they would run rather than attack. Then the rhinos came into sight and Harry grinned. She checked the steam pressure. The Ostrich was good for a few more minutes.

  Hopefully.

  She steered to get the rhinos lined up with the copse and the tents. Paused for a moment and advanced the power regulator. The Ostrich moved more rapidly, but it was out of sight from the camp now.

  The rhinos heard the noise and looked up with curiosity. This puffing thing meant nothing to them. Harry advanced the regulator more, reached up and pulled down hard.

  The steam klaxon screamed across the savanna.

  Gazelle, giraffe, rhinoceros and elephants looked up startled. The roaring monster had the gazelle running in moments. They passed the rhinoceros who decided that if the gazelle were running, it was probably a good idea. They turned away from the monster and fled.

  Harry opened up the regulator more, and gave a few quick blasts on the klaxon.

  The gazelle and rhinoceros reached the copse, where the giraffe and elephants were already on the move, and the whole mass of animals poured in a wave of destruction across the grassland.

  Less than a minute later they reached the encampment.

  <<>>

  The car had suffered least from the stampede. The tents were crushed and the plane had been shredded—Harry felt that loss more than the others.

  They picked their way through the wreckage. No man remained alive, one gazelle had got caught between a large animal and the unforgiving metal of the car. It was still breathing but unable to do more than feebly wave its legs.

  Harry watched it for a few painful seconds then found a pistol and put it out of its misery.

/>   Johannes found what he assumed must be the stolen papers. Heavily trampled, torn and filthy. He folded them carefully.

  “Aren’t you going to look at them?” said Harry.

  He shook his head. “The nature of them is not my concern,” he said, “only their recovery.”

  Harry shrugged. She would have looked but she respected his choice.

  “The car will run,” said Sellie, taking her head out of the engine. “This is just beautiful. Do you think we can keep it?”

  Harry shook her head. She felt deflated. When they had been fighting, driving and chasing she was alive. Why couldn’t the flyer have been the machine to survive? She could have flown them home.

  She glanced across at the Ostrich. She did not love it but it had done a good job for them. And now they would have to leave it behind.

  Having put the plans in the car, Johannes was scrounging for food and water.

  “Come on,” said Harry. “Let’s go home.”

  A bath and sleep would be nice.

  Epilogue

  The sun had gone down by the time Harry drove the Italian car up the drive of their home. The lights were on in the house and there on the lawn was something very large covered with a tarpaulin.

  She turned off the engine and sat staring out of the glass at nothing in particular. The Faraday device cut out and her weight returned, pulling her deeper into the seat. She was exhausted. The journey back had been uneventful and she had dropped Johannes off by the bridge outside Mombasa. They had agreed that Harry and Sellie would be better off going home than facing the music at the port.

  The steps up to the house flooded with light as the doors were opened.

  “Dad’s home!” said Sellie and climbed out.

  “Khuwelsa Edgbaston, what have you done to your dress? Where’s Harriet?”

  “Sorry Dad, it’s been a very trying day.”

  “I heard there was an accident at the air field. And why have you got that vehicle?”

  “Not now, papa,” said Sellie. “Very trying day, remember.”