‘Oh, I wouldn’t know about that, sir. I’m just from the village.’
‘The village,’ Gottfried echoed. ‘It must be a remarkable centre. You wouldn’t be likely to know anything else that is going on here?’
‘Like what, sir?’
‘You cannot expect, my boy, that I will believe your Royal Navy has built an inland research centre just to conduct schoolroom experiments.’ He paused and then began to go through the drawers of the desk. Simon went on towards the work bench where Liz was making a second assault on the tins.
‘Don’t you know anything?’ he asked. ‘Tins are usually opened from the top.’
‘I don’t want to know,’ Liz spat back quietly. ‘My father, Frank, whoever he is — look at what’s happened to him — and you think I’m going to feed these horrible Germans?’
‘We still have to eat. I’m starving. Gimme that tin opener.’
‘Here then. My wrists aren’t strong enough.’
‘It’s brains you need for opening tins.’
‘If you’re so brainy tell me what it meant. Daddy and Mr Traynor turning up like that...’
‘I’m not sure, Liz. But I do know that they really were there and had come up here to look for us.’
‘They were there all right, but we were too, weren’t we? So why couldn’t they see us?’
‘Because we weren’t there as far as they were concerned. You see we’re in 1940 now and they’re in 1970. Because we really come from 1970 we could see them but they couldn’t see us back in World War II. The Germans couldn’t see them either.’
‘I don’t think I’ve got the brains for all this,’ Liz groaned. ‘I think I’d better stick to the cookery bit. Not that I’m much good at that. Only I keep being upset about Frank who’s my father before he was my father. What happened to him? It’s all so weird.’
‘Whatever happened to him he’ll get better. You know that or you wouldn’t be here. What we have to do is to get out of this place.’
‘How?’
‘First the hole in the fence and then through the barrier. You, me and Sarah.’
‘Sarah?’
‘We can’t leave her here even if she’s not very bright. Do you think you can make her understand?’
‘I’ll have to somehow.’
‘You see, Liz, I’m going to be in real trouble if I don’t get out soon.’
‘You? How?’
‘I understand about radar. I mean, I know how it works and how it was developed during the war. Old Gottfried quizzes me about it and I’m scared he’s going to get all I know out of me somehow.’
‘Well, why don’t you tell him? What difference can it make?’
‘Liz, for goodness sake! Don’t you know there’s a war on?’
And Simon left her to her cooking and returned to the radar set.
9
Fritz, half-carrying Frank, was let into the Recreation room by Graz. Traynor swung round to the door and felt his hopes drain away at the sight of Frank in such poor shape.
‘Skinner...’ he rapped out as Fritz pushed him away.
‘Er ist krank,’ Fritz said. ‘Sprechen Sie deutsch?’
‘Sehr wenig,’ Traynor answered cautiously.
‘Vielleicht ist er gefallen. Sehen Sie sich seinen Kopf an.’ Traynor examined the wounded skin on Frank’s forehead. He looked at Fritz. ‘Kein Kampf?’
Fritz shook his head and left.
They put Frank down on the sofa and covered him with a blanket. His breathing was shallow and he showed no sign of regaining consciousness. Traynor sat brooding by his side hoping for some change in his condition. Sarah sat immobile, twisting the hem of her skirt in her fingers. Occasionally she sniffed. A sharp kick on the door ended the silence. Graz drew his Luger and swung open the door. Facing him was Liz with a tray of steaming food and coffee.
‘Food,’ she said. ‘Eat?’
‘Herein,’ grunted Graz and waved Liz into the room with the Luger.
Traynor thoughtfully watched her pass across the room and put the tray down on the billiard table. He walked over and stood beside her. ‘Looks good,’ he said. ‘Do we prisoners of war get grub too?’
‘Oh yes. I suppose so anyway. I’ve cooked up masses of it.’ She even managed a smile.
‘Can you distract the attention of the German guard? Make some diversion. It’s important for young Skinner.’
‘Trust me,’ said Liz. ‘We learn it in Domestic Science.’ She turned towards Graz, plate of steaming pilchards in one hand and coffee mug in the other.
‘Oops, so sorry!’ she cried out. Coffee and fish slipped from her grasp, and the scalding mixture landed in Graz’s lap.
He leapt to his feet, stamping in rage and pain. ‘Dummes Kind!’
‘Here, let me clean you up,’ Liz said. ‘My, aren’t you going to smell something horrid before you get home,’ she went on in a flurry of chatter that provoked Graz even further. Traynor was shaking Frank by the shoulder.
‘Skinner,’ he was saying sharply into Frank’s ear. ‘It’s Commander Traynor. Can you hear me?’
‘Lights ... lights ... very bright ... my head hurts.’ Frank was gasping in a husky whisper.
‘That job I ordered you to do, Skinner. Did you get it done?’
‘Lights...’ muttered Frank and, sighing, relapsed into a coma.
Traynor bent frowning over him, adjusted his blankets and felt his forehead with the back of his hand. Then, sensing another presence near, he looked up and saw Gottfried watching him.
‘Is he at all better?’ he asked.
‘For a moment he spoke a word or two but it didn’t make much sense,’ replied Traynor.
‘Like many other things here. Commander,’ Gottfried said. ‘We found him on the floor. I thought perhaps he has had a blackout and is now concussed.’
‘A blackout?’ said Traynor musingly. ‘I suppose it’s possible though he’s very young for that.’
‘Well, Commander, however it came about we must eat. And I would like you to do me the honour of taking dinner with me.’
Traynor held back his amusement at this pompous invitation.
‘As you wish, Herr Kapitan,’ he answered. ‘And since you’re inviting me to food I’ll provide the drinks. There’s a bottle or two of claret in my locker.’
‘After you, Herr Commander,’ said Gottfried, standing aside for Traynor to pass. He turned to Liz. ‘You will serve us as soon as possible. Perhaps you can persuade also your sailor friend to drink a little coffee?’
A furious Liz stormed back into the Operations room to find Simon spooning up pilchards.
‘That’s the Admiral’s pilchards you’re scoffing, Simon Randall. You’ll have to open another tin for me and you.’ ‘Listen, Liz,’ Simon cut in. ‘I’ve got a plan to make a getaway. Now just listen and don’t argue. Fritz was called out to take a signal and he’ll be back in a second.’
10
Gottfried raised his glass against the light and looked through the ruby red wine.
‘Your British Navy always manages a few comforts, however simple its life may become.’
Traynor’s glass was cupped in both hands and he looked musingly into its shadowed depth.
‘As you say, we manage, Kapitan,’ he answered. ‘Not a bad wine this one. You wouldn’t have done better if you’d raided Claridges.’
‘Or the Hotel Bristol in Berlin?’
Traynor smiled. ‘Let’s be serious, Gottfried. You’re a hunter without a quarry and you’re using your charm and politeness to get something out of me. You might as well be honest and say straight out what you want and then accept the fact that you won’t get it.’ Traynor gazed speculatively at his opponent.
‘So,’ answered Gottfried, ‘We are at war and there is no way to communicate. A misfortune.’ He pushed back his chair and paced round the room, as if weighing in his mind whether or not to talk. He turned and leant across the desk.
‘It was a surprise to me, Commander Charles Trayno
r of the Royal Navy, when I learnt you were in charge of the Station here at St Oswald. I remember you well for your papers on physics in the International Science Review in the late thirties. Particularly one in 1937. May 1 remind you? It was on the possibility of radio signals from beyond the atmosphere. I wrote querying three points...’
‘You’re Gottfried,’ burst out Traynor. ‘Helmut K. Gottfried of Heidelberg University. Faculty of Physics. I’ll be damned.’ He had leapt to his feet looking in a kind of delighted amazement at his opponent.‘And your queries, the first two, proved valid. As a result I was able to make...’
The two men stood silently examining one another. ‘Exactly,’ said Gottfried. ‘We’re at war. And so I won’t easily get what I want from you. Commander. At least, not as a Naval Officer. But as scientist to scientist there are some very interesting questions. First,’ his voice became pleading, ‘first, what about that boy?’
Traynor relaxed.
‘The boy,’ he said, ‘and the two girls are your pigeon. They helped you to get in through the wire.’
‘No.’ Gottfried’s denial carried conviction, and Traynor felt he must reconsider the question of the children.
Gottfried went on.
‘We Germans have not yet stooped to using children in a dangerous enterprise of this kind. But the boy. Commander, is remarkably knowledgeable.’
‘He may well be,’ Traynor answered. ‘But I don’t know who he is, where he came from nor how he came by his extraordinary knowledge.’
‘So. Perhaps I can persuade him to tell us. Now, my second question.’
He was interrupted by a sharp rap on the door. He called ‘Herein’ and Fritz entered and handed him a slip of paper.
‘I may have less time here than I had hoped.’ He dismissed Fritz and moved closer to Traynor.
‘Commander, I must tell you. The radio-location sets in your Operations room are quite impressive but nobody will convince me or the Abwehr that Charles Traynor’s talents are being wasted on just that. You must tell me, please ... what are you doing here in this dreary little village?’
‘The East Coast is very agreeable in the early summer,’ Traynor replied.
‘You may change your mind about that before we leave,’ returned the Kapitan as he got to his feet. ‘Come. I have a little more work to do before we talk again.’ And he stood back politely as Traynor passed into the corridor.
* * *
Gottfried came slowly and irritably into the Operations room. Liz looked up from washing the greasy dishes. She shook her fingers dry and wrinkled up her nose. Not her idea of a job. Fritz came to attention and then drifted away as Gottfried brushed him aside. Simon was finishing a neat solder job on the radar set. Gottfried looked across his shoulder.
‘No more fading now?’ he asked.
‘Not any more,’ said Simon. ‘What’s it for?’ he asked and regretted his question as Gottfried answered him tartly: ‘As if you didn’t know, my boy.’
‘Sir,’ said Simon abruptly. ‘There’s something Liz and I think you ought to be told.’
Liz approached them slowly.
‘And what,’ asked Gottfried casually, ‘should I be told?’
‘Well, sir, just before you arrived we were outside in the field.’
‘I suppose you must have been — and how did you get there?’
‘We climbed in through a hole in the fence.’
‘You what?’
Liz burst in. ‘We did. There was a hole in the wire and we got through it and then this sailor caught us. We had a horrid time and they put us into that room with Sarah.’
‘Sarah,’ burst out Gottfried. ‘Is that the other girl — the quiet one?’
‘That’s right,’ Liz ran on. ‘She doesn’t talk much but she told us when she came in hours ago she saw some sailors burying a machine near the rocks by that hole.’
‘A machine?’ Gottfried was alert but disbelieving. ‘What kind of machine?’
‘Sir,’ said Simon. ‘Sarah is what we call not very bright, sir. She said it was like a Meccano set, only bigger.’
‘Is this true?’ the Kapitan growled. ‘Or some more ghosts?’
‘I think it must be true. sir. Sarah’s too stupid to make it up,’
‘And why, my young ones, do you tell me this?’
‘We thought you should know,’ Liz said. ‘You see they’ve been horrid to us since they caught us and you’re much better. Down in the village we don’t like the Station people much — they’re...’
‘Weird. And they push us around.’
‘Down in your village they seem to me even more weird.’ Gottfried was half convinced towards action.
‘You don’t behave like children out of any village in the world I know about. You especially, my boy. Tell me the truth at last. What are you doing in this place? The real truth.’
Simon plucked up courage to look the Kapitan in the eye and say slowly:
‘Nothing. We were playing and happened to get in here and the sailors took us prisoners.’
‘Well,’ sighed Gottfried. ‘Let us now go and dig up the Meccano set. Where is the place?’
‘Only Sarah knows,’ said Liz. ‘We’ll have to take her there.’
‘We’ll get her on our way,’ said Gottfried. ‘And I hope you two understand that my time here is short and I’m going to be very angry if anyone wastes it. Come. And you too, Fritz. See if you can find a spade.’
* * *
In the Recreation room Traynor looked up as Gottfried, Fritz and the children entered. Liz went over to Sarah and put an arm round her. ‘Come on, Sarah,’ she said quietly. ‘We’re going for a walk.’
Sarah drew herself away and sniffed.
‘You want to go home to your mum, don’t you?’ Liz went on.
‘Mum?’ said Sarah with more sniffs.
‘Yes, mum. She’s got some sweets for you.’
Sarah showed more interest.
Traynor came forward.
‘What’s going on?’ he demanded.
‘I have to question this child,’ the Kapitan answered.
‘Gottfried,’ Traynor insisted. ‘I must remind you that these children are under my authority. If anything should happen to them...’
Gottfried began to shout. ‘How often must I tell you, Commander, that I am not here to harm anyone. For men like us, war is not an opportunity to maim and kill. And especially not children ...
Under this screen an insistent Liz had coaxed Sarah out of her chair. ‘You’ll just have to do what we say and then you can get back to your mum. You do understand, don’t you, Sarah?’
The simple child looked with half a smile at Liz and nodded. They were on their way. Once in the dark both Liz and Simon lost their sense of direction. But Fritz strode confidently towards the perimeter and as their eyesight grew used to the dark they saw the fence and then the rocks behind which they had hidden.
Fritz drove the light shovel he had found among tools in the guardroom into the ground and looked to Gottfried, like a terrier on a rat hunt.
The Kapitan turned to Sarah. ‘Is this the place?’ he asked her sharply.
‘You’ll only scare her like that,’ protested Liz. ‘Let me talk to her.’ She drew Sarah aside and dried her sudden tears.
‘Now, Sarah, remember about the sailors and their Meccano set? Show the Admiral where they hid it, there’s a good girl.’
‘Meccano?’ whimpered Sarah.
‘Yes, the one you told us that was put in a hole in the ground. Remember? Then we’ll go home and you can have your sweets,’ she added quickly in a whisper.
‘Yes,’ Sarah answered at last. ‘Yes it were over by the stones. Likely it was here, I think.’ Gottfried came forward and Fritz poked around with his shovel.
‘Nichts,’ he grunted.
‘The ground hasn’t been touched around here,’ said Gottfried.
Simon spoke up. ‘Sarah, did you mean under the rocks?’
‘Uh,’ replied Sarah.
‘Half a sec,’ said Simon and moving towards the Kapitan managed to push Liz towards the fence. She caught on immediately and drew Sarah towards the hole in the wire.
‘Fritz, and you too, boy, come and help. There’s a heap of loose stones and earth here,’ the Kapitan rapped out. But as Fritz turned for his shovel he saw Liz half through the wire, struggling angrily with a long strand that had caught in her sweater.
‘Achtung, Flerr Kapitan,’ he called and whipped out his pistol.
‘Don’t shoot, you thickhead!’ screamed Gottfried and reached out towards Fritz. The guard had changed his grip to the barrel and was swinging savagely at Liz, tangled and writhing in the barbed wire.
11
‘People don’t slip sideways into some fourth dimension,’ Mr Skinner was shouting. ‘It’s rubbish. You can’t just vanish out of your own time. And what’s more, Mr Traynor, I’m. not going to be pushed around. You stopped being my CO when I was demobbed in 1940 so belt up ... God, my head.’
Skinner had fallen to his knees and was rocking from side to side, head in hands, groaning.
Traynor looked down at him. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘My head. Like a toothache, only worse.’
He scrambled up and stared at Traynor. ‘Your ideas are crazy nonsense.’ He turned away towards St Oswald and Traynor followed him.
They climbed together through the gap in the stone wall and Skinner, out of breath and in distress, sat down holding a hand to his forehead. Traynor squatted beside him. ‘What,’ he asked, ‘if it isn’t moonshine? What if people could get caught in time and slip from one stream to another. What then?’
Skinner rubbed his head. ‘I need Disprin more than theories. You haven’t got a couple? No, that would be too much to expect.’
Traynor looked interested. ‘A headache? Here?’ He reached out a finger, traced an area on Skinner’s skull with a delicate finger.
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