Rat Race Part 18

'Nine nine eight millibars.'

'Nine nine eight,' I repeated, and took my hand off the throttle enough to set that figure on the altimeter subscale. To Annie Villars I said, 'Can you make an 8, as well?'

'I expect so.'

'Crossing the coast,' Marham said.

'Right... Miss Villars will you hold up SEA?'

She nodded and did so. Nancy waved the map.

'Now hold up SET, then 998, then MBS.'

'S... E... T,' she repeated, holding them against the window. 'Nine, nine, eight.' She paused 'There's no M cut out.'

'W upside down,' Kenny Bayst said, and gave it to her.

Oh yes. M... B... S. What does mbs mean?'

'Millibars' I said.

Nancy waved the map, but I said to Annie, 'Hold up the nine nine eight again, it's very important.'

She held them up. We could see Nancy's head nodding as she waved back vigorously.

'Why is it so important?' Annie said.

'Unless you set the altimeter to the right pressure on the subscale, it doesn't tell you how high you are above the sea.'

'Oh.'

'Now would you hold up B A S E, then 6 0 0, then F T.'

'Right... Base... six hundred... feet.'

There was a distinct pause before Nancy waved, and then it was a small, half hearted one. She must have been horrified to find that the clouds were so low: she must have been thanking her stars that she hadn't tried to go down through them. Highly frightening piece of information, that six hundred feet.

'Now,' I said to Annie, 'Hold up "Follow river and rail one nine zero to Cambridge".'

'Follow... river... and... rail... one... nine... zero... to... Cambridge... no g... never mind, c will do, then e.' She spelt it out slowly. Nancy waved.

'And just one more... 40, then N, then M.'

'Forty nautical miles,' she said triumphantly. She held them up and Nancy waved.

'Now hold up "follow" again.'

'Right.'

I consulted Marham, took Nancy out to sea a little further, and led her round in a circle until we were both heading just west of south on one nine zero, and in a straight line to the railway and river from King's Lynn to Cambridge.

'Hold up D O W N," I said.

She did it without speaking. Nancy gave a little wave. I put the nose of the Six down towards the clouds and accelerated to a hundred and forty knots so that there would be no possibility of her cras.h.i.+ng into the back of us. The white fleecy layer came up to meet us, embraced us in sunlit feathery wisps, closed lightly around us, became denser, darker, an anthracite fog pressing on the windows. The altimeter unwound, the clock needles going backwards through 3,000 feet, 2,000 feet, 1,000 feet, still no break at 800 feet, 700... and there there at last the mist receded a little and became drizzly haze, and underneath us, pretty close underneath, were the restless rainswept dark greeny grey waves.

The pa.s.sengers were all silent. I glanced round at them. They were all looking down at the sea in varying states of awe. I wondered if any of them knew I had just broken two laws and would undoubtedly be prosecuted again by the Board of Trade. I wondered if I would ever, ever, learn to keep myself out of trouble.

We crossed the coast over King's Lynn and flew down the river to Ely and Cambridge, just brus.h.i.+ng through the misty cloud base at seven hundred feet. The forward visibility was bad, and I judged it silly to go back and wait for Nancy, because we might collide before we saw each other. I completed the journey as briefly as possible and we landed on the wet tarmac and taxied round towards the airport buildings. When I stopped the engine, everyone as if moved by one mind climbed out and looked upwards; even Ambrose.

The drizzle was light now, like fine mist. We stood quietly in it, getting damp, listening for the sound of an engine, watching far the shadow against the sky. Minutes ticked past. Annie Villars looked at me anxiously. I shook my head, not knowing exactly what I meant.

She couldn't have gone down too far... hit the sea... got disorientated in the cloud... lost when she came out of it. . still in danger.

The drizzle fell. My heart also.

But she hadn't made any mistakes.

The engine noise crept in as a hum, then a buzz, then a definite rhythm. The little red and white aeroplane appeared suddenly against the righthand sky, and she was circling safely round the outskirts of the field and coming sedately down to land.

'Oh...' Annie Villars said, and wiped two surprising tears of relief out of her eyes.

Ambrose said sulkily, 'That's all right then. Now I hope we can get off home,' and stomped heavily away towards the buildings.

Nancy taxied round and stopped her Cherokee a short distance away. Colin climbed out on the wing, grinned hugely in our direction, and waved.

'He's got no b.l.o.o.d.y nerves,' Kenny said. 'Not a bleeding nerve in his whole body.'

Nancy came out after him, jumping down onto the tarmac and staggering a bit as she landed on wobbly knees. I began to walk towards them. She started slowly to meet me, and then faster, and then ran, with her hair swinging out and her arms stretched wide. I held her round the waist and swung her up and round in the air and when I put her down she wrapped her arms behind my neck and kissed me.

'Matt...' She was half laughing, half crying, her eyes s.h.i.+ning, her cheeks a burning red, the sudden release of tension making her tremble down to her fingertips.

Colin reached us and gave me a buffet on the shoulder.

'Thanks, chum.'

'Thank the R.A.F. They found you on their radar.'

'But how did you know...?'

'Long story,' I said. Nancy was still holding on to me as if she would fall down if she let go. I made the most of it by kissing her again, on my own account.

She laughed shakily and untwined her arms. 'When you came... I can't tell you... it was such a relief...'

Annie Villars came up and touched her arm and she turned to her with the same hectic over-excitement.

'Oh...Annie.'

'Yes, dear,' she said calmly. 'What you need now is a strong brandy.'

'I ought to see to . .' she looked vaguely in my direction, and back to the Cherokee.

'Colin and Matt will see to everything.'

'All right, then...' She let herself be taken off by Annie Villars, who had recovered her poise and a.s.sumed total command as a good general should. Kenny and the other jockey and trainer meekly followed.

'Now,' said Colin. 'How on earth did you know we needed you?'

'I'll show you,' I said abruptly. 'Come and look.' I walked him back to the little Cherokee, climbed up on to the wing and lay down on my back across the two front seats, looking up under the control panel.

'What on earth...?'

The device was there. I showed it to him. Very neat, very small. A little polythene-wrapped packet swinging free on a rubber band which was itself attached to the cable leading to the master switch. Nearer the switch one wire of the two wire cable had been bared: the two severed ends of copper showed redly against the black plastic casing.

I left everything where it was and eased myself out on to the wing.

'What is it? What does it mean?'

'Your electric system was sabotaged.'

'For G.o.d's sake... why?'

'I don't know,' I sighed. 'I only know who did it. The same person who planted the bomb a month ago. Major Rupert Tyderman.'

He stared at me blankly. 'It doesn't make sense.'

'Not much. No.'

I told him how the Major had set off the bomb while we were safely on the ground, and that today he had thought I was flying Nancy's Cherokee and could get myself out of trouble.

'But that's... that means...'

'Yes,' I said.

'He's trying to make it look as though someone's trying to kill me.'

I nodded. 'While making d.a.m.n sure you survive.'

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

The Board of Trade came down like the hounds of h.e.l.l and it wasn't the tall reasonable man I faced this time in the crew room but a short hard-packed individual with an obstinate jaw and unhumorous eyes. He refused to sit down: preferred to stand. He had brought no silent note-taker along. He was strictly a one man band. And hot on percussion.

'I must bring to your attention the Air Navigation Order Nineteen sixty six.' His voice was staccato and uncompromising, the traditional politeness of his department reduced to the thinnest of veneers.

I indicated that I was reasonably familiar with the order in question. As it ruled every cranny of a professional pilot's life, this was hardly surprising.

'We have been informed that on Friday last you contravened Article 25, paragraph 4, sub section a, and Regulation 8, paragraph 2.

I waited for him to finish. Then I said 'Who informed you?'

He looked at me sharply. 'That is beside the point.'

'Could it have been Polyplanes?'

His eyelids flickered in spite of himself. 'If we receive a complaint which can be substantiated we are bound to investigate.'

The complaint could be substantiated, all right. Sat.u.r.day's newpapers were still strewn around the crew room this Monday morning, all full of the latest attempt on Colin Ross's life. Front page stuff. Also minute details from all my pa.s.sengers about how we had led him out to sea and brought him home under the 700 ft cloud base.

Only trouble was, it was illegal in a single engine aeroplane like the Six to take paying customers out over the sea as low as I had, and to land them at an airport where the cloud base was lower than one thousand feet.

'You admit that you contravened Section...'

I interrupted him. 'Yes.'

He opened his mouth and shut it again. 'Er, I see.' He cleared his throat. 'You will receive a summons in due course.'

'Yes,' I said again.

'Not your first, I believe.' An observation, not a sneer.

'No,' I said unemotionally.

A short silence. Then I said, 'How did that gadget work? The nitric acid package on the rubber band.'

'That is not your concern.'

I shrugged. 'I can ask any schoolboy who does chemistry."

He hesitated. He was not of the stuff to give anything away. He would never, as the tall man had, say or imply that there could be any fault in his Government or the Board. But having searched his conscience and no doubt his standing orders, he felt able after all to come across.

'The package contained fluffy fibregla.s.s soaked in a weak solution of nitric acid. A section of wire in the cable to the master switch had been bared, and the fibregla.s.s wrapped around it. The nitric acid slowly dissolved the copper wire, taking, at that concentration, probably about an hour and a half to complete the process.' He stopped, considering.

'And the rubber band?' I prompted.

'Yes... well, nitric acid, like water, conducts electricity, so that while the fibregla.s.s was still in position the electrical circuit would be maintained, even though the wire itself had been completely dissolved. To break the circuit the fibregla.s.s package had to be removed. This was done by fastening it under tension via the rubber band to a point further up the cable. When the nitric acid dissolved right through the wire and the two ends parted, there was nothing to stop the rubber band contracting and pulling the fibregla.s.s package away. Er... do I make myself clear?'

'Indeed,' I agreed, 'you do.'

He seemed to give himself a little mental and physical shake, and turned with sudden energy towards the door.

'Right,' he said briskly. 'Then I need a word with Mr Harley.'

'Did you get a word with Major Tyderman?' I asked.