Rat Race Part 17

I turned back on track, stifling the raw anxiety which mounted with every minute. They must find her, I thought. They must must.

Cottesmore said, 'One aircraft which pa.s.sed close to the south of us five minutes ago has now turned north.'

Not her.

'The same aircraft has now flown in a complete circle and resumed a track of one one zero.'

It might be her. If she had spotted a thin patch. Had gone to see if she could see the ground and get down safely to below the cloud. Had found she couldn't: had gone on again in what she thought was the direction of Cambridge.

'That might be her,' I said. Or someone else in the same difficulties. Or someone simply practising turns. Or anything.

'That particular aircraft has now turned due south... slightly west... now round again to south east... back to one one zero.'

'Could be looking for thin patches in the cloud,' I said.

'Could be. Stand by.' A pause. Then his voice, remote and careful. 'Cloud base in this area is down to six hundred feet. Eight eighths cover. No clear patches.'

Oh Nancy...

'I'm going to look for that one,' I said. 'Can you give me a steer to close on its present track?'

'Will do,' he said. 'Turn left on to zero nine five. You are thirty miles to the west. I estimate your ground speed at one fifty knots. The aircraft in question is travelling at about ninety five knots.'

In the twelve minutes it would take me to reach the other aircraft's present position, it would have s.h.i.+fted twenty miles further on. Catching up would take twenty-five to thirty minutes.

'The aircraft in question is circling again... now tracking one one zero...'

The more it circled, the sooner I'd catch it. But if it wasn't Nancy at all... I thrust the thought violently out of my mind. If it wasn't we might never find her.

Ambrose touched my arm, and I had been concentrating so hard that I jumped.

'We're off course,' he said dogmatically. He tapped the compa.s.s. 'We're going due east. We'd better not be lost.'

'We're under radar control,' I said matter-of-factly.

'Oh...' He was uncertain. 'I see.'

I would have to tell him, I thought. Couldn't put it off any longer. I explained the situation as briefly as I could, leaving out Major Tyderman's part in it and shouting to make myself heard over the noise of the engine.

He was incredulous. 'Do you mean we're chasing all over the sky looking for Colin Ross?'

'Directed by radar,' I said briefly.

'And who,' he asked belligerently, 'is going to pay for this? I am certainly not. In fact you have been totally irresponsible in changing course without asking my permission first.'

Cottesmore reported, 'The aircraft is now overhead Stamford, and circling again.'

'Roger,' I said. And for G.o.d's Sake, Nancy, I thought, don't try going down through the cloud just there. There were some hills round about and a radio mast five hundred feet high.

'Steer one zero zero to close.'

'One zero zero.'

'Aircraft has resumed its former heading.'

I took a considerable breath of relief.

'Did you hear what I said?' Ambrose demanded angrily.

'We have a duty to go to the help of an aircraft in trouble,' I said.

'Not at my expense, we don't.'

'You will be charged,' I said patiently, 'only the normal amount for the trip.'

'That's not the point. You should have asked my permission. I am seriously displeased. I will complain to Harley. We should not have left our course. Someone else should have gone to help Colin Ross. Why should we be inconvenienced?'

'I am sure he will be pleased to hear your views,' I said politely. 'And no doubt he will pay any expenses incurred in his rescue.'

He glared at me speechlessly, swept by fury.

Annie Villars leaned forward and tapped me on the shoulder.

'Did I hear you say that Colin Ross is lost? Up here, do you mean? On top of the clouds?'

I glanced round. They were all awake, all looking concerned.

'Yes,' I said briefly. 'With no radio. The radar people think they may have found him. We're going over to see... and to help.'

'Anything we can do...' Annie said. 'Of course, call on us.'

I smiled at her over my shoulder. Ambrose turned round to her and started to complain. She shut him up smartly. 'Do you seriously propose we make no attempt to help? You must be out of your mind. It is our clear and absolute duty to do whatever we can. And a captain doesn't have to consult his pa.s.sengers before he goes to help another s.h.i.+p in distress.'

He said something about expense. Annie said crisply, 'If you are too mean to pay a few extra pounds as your share of perhaps saving the life of Colin Ross, I shall be pleased to contribute the whole amount myself.'

'Atta girl,' Kenny Bayst said loudly. Annie Villars looked startled, but not displeased. Ambrose swivelled to face forwards. He had turned a dark purplish red. I hoped it was shame and embarra.s.sment, not an incipient thrombosis.

'The aircraft is circling again,' Cottesmore reported. 'Its position now is just south of Peterborough... Remain on your present heading... I am handing you on now to Wytton... no need for you to explain to them... they know the situation.'

'Thank you very much,' I said.

'Good luck...'

Wytton, the next in the chain, the R.A.F. master station north east of Cambridge, was crisp, cool, efficient.

'Cloud base at Cambridge six hundred feet, no further deterioration in past half hour. Visibility three kilometres in light rain. Surface wind two four zero, ten knots.'

'Weather copied,' I said automatically. I was looking at the map. Another radio mast, this one seven hundred feet high, south of Peterborough. Go on, Nancy, I thought, go on, further east. Don't try there. Not there...

Wytton said 'Aircraft now back on one one zero.'

I rubbed a hand round the back of my neck. I could feel the sweat.

'Steer zero nine five. You are now ten miles west of the aircraft.'

'I'm climbing to flight level eight zero. To see better.'

'Cleared to eight zero.'

The altimeter hands crept round to eight thousand feet. The blanket of white fleece spread out unbroken in all directions to the horizon, soft and pretty in the sun. The pa.s.sengers murmured, perhaps realising for the first time the extent of Nancy's predicament. Mile after mile after mile of emptiness, and absolutely no way of telling where she was.

'Aircraft's circling again... Maintain zero nine five. You are now seven miles to the west.'

I said over my shoulder to Annie Villars, 'We'll see them soon... Would you take this notebook...' I handed her the spiral bound reporters' notebook I used for jotting during flights, 'and make some letters out of the pages? As big as you can. We will need, you see, to hold them up in the window, so that Nancy and Colin can read what we want them to do.'

And let it be them, I thought coldly. Just let it be them, and not some other poor lost souls. Because we'd have to stay to help. We couldn't leave them to struggle and look somewhere else for the ones we wanted...

Annie Villars fumbled in her handbag and produced a small pair of scissors.

'Which letters?' she said economically. 'You say, and I'll write them down, and then make them.'

'Right... FOLWBASE. That will do to start with.

I twisted my head and saw her start snipping. She was making them full page size and as bold as possible. Satisfied, I looked forward again, scanning the sunny waste, searching for a small black cigarette shape moving ahead.

'Turn on to one zero five' Wytton said. 'The aircraft is now in your one o'clock position five miles ahead.'

I looked down over to the right of the aircraft's nose. Ambrose reluctantly looked out of the window in sulky silence.

'There Kenny Bayst said. 'Over there, down there.' I looked where he was pointing... and there it was, slightly more over to our right, beginning another circling sweep over a darker patch of cloud which might have been a hole, but wasn't. Kenny Bayst said. 'Over there, down there.' I looked where he was pointing... and there it was, slightly more over to our right, beginning another circling sweep over a darker patch of cloud which might have been a hole, but wasn't.

'Contact,' I said to Wytton. 'Closing in now.'

'Your intentions?' he asked unemotionally.

'Lead them up to the Wash, descend over the sea, follow the river and railway from King's Lynn to Cambridge.'

'Roger. We'll advise Marham. They'll give you radar coverage over the sea.'

I put the nose down, built up the speed, and overhauled the ether aircraft like an E-type catching a bicycle. The nearer we got the more I hoped... it was a low winged aeroplane... a Cherokee... white with red markings... and finally the registration number... and someone frantically waving a map at us from the window.

The relief was overpowering.

'It's them,' Annie said, and I could only nod and swallow.

I throttled back and slowed the Six until it was down to Nancy's cruising speed, then circled until I came up on her left side, and about fifty yards away. She had never done any formation flying. Fifty yards was the closest it was safe to go to her and even fifty yards was risking it a bit. I kept my hand on the throttle, my eyes on her, and an extra pair of eyes I didn't know I had, fixed on the heading.

To Annie Villiars I said, 'Hold up the letters for "follow". Slowly. One by one.'

'Right.' She held them flat against the window beside her. We could see Colin's head leaning back behind Nancy's. When Annie finished the word we saw him wave his hand, and after that Nancy waved her map against her window, which showed up better.

'Wytton,' I reported. 'It is the right aircraft. They are following us to the Wash. Can you give me a steer to King's Lynn?'

'Delighted,' he said. 'Steer zero four zero, and call Marham on frequency one one nine zero.'

'Thanks a lot' I said with feeling.

'You're very welcome.'

Good guys, I thought. Very good guys, sitting in their darkened rooms wearing headsets and staring at their little dark circular screens, watching the mult.i.tude of yellow dots which were aircraft swimming slowly across like tadpoles. They'd done a terrific job, finding the Rosses. Terrific.

'Can you make a figure 4?' I asked Annie Villars.

'Certainly.' The scissors began to snip.

'When you have, would you hold up the O, then the 4, then the O again?'

'With pleasure.'

She held up the figures. Nancy waved the map. We set off north-eastwards to the sea, Nancy staying behind us to the right, with me flying looking over my shoulder to keep a steady distance between us. I judged it would take thirteen minutes at her speed to reach the sea, five to ten to let down, and twenty or so more to return underneath the cloud base to Cambridge. Her fuel by the time she got there would be low, but there was less risk of her running dry than of hitting a hill or trees or a building by going down over the land. Letting down over the sea was in these circ.u.mstances the best procedure whenever possible.

'We're going to need some more letters,' I told Annie.

'Which?'

'Um... R, I, V, and N, D, C, and a T, and a nine.'

'Right.'

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Annie Villars snipping and Kenny Bayst, sitting behind her, sorting out the letters she had already made so that she could easily pick them out when they were needed. There was, I thought to myself, with a small internal smile, a truce in operation in that area.

Marham radar reported, 'You have four miles to run to the coast.'

'Hope the tide's in,' I said facetiously.

'Affirmative,' he said with deadpan humour. 'High water eighteen forty hours B.S.T.'

'And... er... the cloud base?'

'Stand by.' Down in his dark room he couldn't see the sky. He had to ask the tower dwellers above.

'Cloud base between six and seven hundred feet above sea level over the entire area from the Wash to Cambridge. Visibility two kilometres in drizzle.'

'Nice' I said with irony.

'Very.'

'Could I have the regional pressure setting?'