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'Captain Harrison,' Donner said calmly to the second-in-command. 'We're going to dismantle Firebird and you are going to help us do it.'

'I'll see you in hell first,' Harrison said.

Donner shook his head. 'Oh no you won't because if you don't co-operate, I'll parade this unit and give every fifth man what I've just given Endicott.'

He meant it and Harrison knew it. He sagged down into a chair and Donner turned to Murdoch. 'All right. Take over the camp and don't forget to make sure of the wireless room first.'

Murdoch went outside, the door banging behind him. Donner turned and lit a cigarette. He looked down at Harrison for a moment, grinned and patted him on the shoulder.

'Cheer up, sport,' he said in his normal voice. 'You could be like Endicott. You could be dead.'

14

Crash-out

'Did you know,' von Bayern said, 'that last year in Munich, there were at least half a dozen cases of injuries to the eye caused by champagne corks? What a city. Really, Paul, there is nowhere quite like it.'

'It certainly sounds quite a place,' Chavasse said.

'What a time I could show you. Soon it will be the Oktoberfest. Parties, balls--the most beautiful women in Germany. Good food, fine wine.' He sighed heavily. 'How long have we been here?'

Chavasse checked his watch. 'About four hours. They'll be on Fhada by now. I'd give a lot to know what's happening.'

'From what you tell me of Donner I should say things are probably going very much according to plan.'

'One thing I don't understand is how Donner intends to get back here from Fhada.'

'You are sure he will come?'

Chavasse nodded. 'He wouldn't leave Asta, He's obsessed by her. His one weakness, I suppose. He said he'd be taking me along and a session in the Lubianka is something I can definitely do without.'

'And how does he intend to leave here?'

'He has his own plane parked in the meadow on the other side of the house--a Beaver.'

'Interesting,' von Bayern said. 'He's certainly thought of everything.'

'And not a damned thing we can do about it. Even if we got out of here, reached Mallaig and they put a general alert into operation, by the time they reached Fhada it would very probably be too late and, as far as I know, it's impossible to land by air.'

'That's not quite true,' von Bayern said. 'I was very thoroughly briefed on the island before coming and there was considerable information on flying conditions which interested me particularly as an old pilot.'

'I didn't realise you'd been a flyer.'

'Oh, yes--I was in the Brandenberg Division for a considerable part of the war--special operations. Handling a plane was just part of the job. Apparently there is a real problem in the Hebrides with down-draughts which makes the use of helicopters often impractical. So many crashed attempting to put down on Fhada, that last year your Army Air Corps experimented in landing light aircraft at the northern end of the island.'

'But I thought the cliffs were about six hundred feet high?'

'True, but when the tide goes out, it uncovers a very large area of firm sand. They found that landing was no trouble. Unfortunately, the tide turns so quickly that it was impossible for the planes to stay very long and there were other problems. The carriage of cargo up the cliffs and so on. I understand the idea has been abandoned.'

Chavasse turned to look at him, his face pale in the half light. 'Could you fly a Beaver by any chance?'

'But of course.' Von Bayern shrugged. 'A common enough military aircraft.'

Chavasse got to his feet and walked restlessly to the other end of the cell. 'Fifteen minutes' flying time from here to Fhada, it couldn't take more.'

'And we could all go,' von Bayern said. 'My men included. A nasty surprise for Herr Donner. Unfortunate that we can't get out of here, isn't it?'

Chavasse kicked the door in impotent rage and the German pulled him down beside him. 'Have another cigarette, Paul, and relax. Anger is a negative emotion. We must wait patiently and grasp what opportunities present themselves.