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'I'm beginning to wonder how we won the war,' Chavasse said and he turned and followed Sergeant-Major Steiner through the cabin door.

The coldness hit him at once and the light rain blowing in from the Atlantic carried the sharp promise of winter with it.

The Germans stood together in a group talking in low voices. Chavasse noticed that Corporal Jackson was joining in and called him over. 'You know some German, then, Corporal?'

Jackson grinned. 'Should do, sir. I've spent enough time in B.A.O.R. My wife, Hilda--she's from Dortmund.'

'Good show,' Chavasse said. 'That's what we're going to speak from now on.' He turned to the rest of the party as von Bayern got out of the plane and said in German, 'This is a military operation, so far as I'm concerned, Colonel von Bayern is in command.'

'Thank you, Paul.' Von Bayern smiled briefly and addressed the men. 'Always supposing that our arrival hasn't been spotted, we have one advantage--complete surprise, plus the fact that you are all familiar with the terrain of the island and layout of the camp, from your two-week period of instruction and briefing in Germany before leaving. Speed is essential, so I don't propose to waste any more time in talk. Our first objective is the armoury. How we get inside is something I shall decide when we get there.'

He nodded to Chavasse and they turned and led the way along the base of the cliffs. From the sea, they had resembled an impregnable stone wall, but a closer inspection revealed great gullies and fissures providing an easy, if strenuous route up from the beach.

Chavasse scrambled over the top fifteen minutes later into a nightmare world of broken grey boulders, sparse grass and clinging mist. Von Bayern followed and they waited for the others to join them.

'From here, the ground slopes steeply to the camp at the other end of the island,' von Bayern said. 'The mist will conceal us for most of the way. After that, we stick to the broken ground.'

'How far?' Chavasse asked him.

'A little over a quarter of a mile.'

They set off down the hillside, keeping together, Chavasse and von Bayern in the lead, moving into a strange and alien world, the grey, damp walls of mist, pressing in on them.

As the ground fell away beneath them, they moved faster and as they descended, visibility increased until finally, the mist disappeared altogether.

A dry stream bed gave them the cover they needed and they followed it for several hundred yards until von Bayern finally called a halt. He and Chavasse crawled up the bank and peered over the edge.

The camp was spread before them no more than a hundred and fifty yards away and von Bayern beckoned to Steiner to join them. As they watched, a truck pulling a trailer carrying a small rocket emerged from behind the missile pens. It drove through the camp and took the road down towards the harbour.

'Firebird?' Chavasse said.

'One would imagine so. The officers' mess is the building directly behind the flagstaff. The armoury is beyond. The radio room is in the concrete tower.'

Sergeant-Major Steiner pointed to a long, low concrete building to their right. 'Isn't that the fuel store, Colonel?'

'That's right.'

'I wonder why they've put a guard on it?'

As he pointed, they saw one of Donner's men step out of the entrance, a machine pistol slung from his shoulders.

'A good place to imprison thirty-eight men, from the look of it,' Chavasse said.

Von Bayern nodded. 'You're probably right. The interesting thing is that the trawler Donner mentioned isn't in the harbour, so presumably they're still waiting for her.'

'That makes sense,' Chavasse said. 'Especially if that was Firebird we just saw going down to the harbour. That trawler isn't going to come in until she's sure they're absolutely ready for her. I bet they've got the whole thing timed to such a degree that she's in and out again in half an hour.'

'It would be a pity to frighten her away,' von Bayern said. 'And the moment we start shooting, whoever is in that radio room will