Air Bridge Part 11

I glanced at my watch. It was eleven-sixteen. Any minute now. Then Field's voice crackled in my ears. 'We're over the corridor beacon now. Right on to 100 degrees. We're minus ten seconds.' I felt ice cold, but calm, as I banked. My stomach didn't flutter any more. I leaned a little forward, feeling for the metal clips. One by one I fastened them together in their pairs. And one by one the engines died, all except the inboard starboard motor. The plane was suddenly very quiet. I heard Tubby's muttered curse quite distinctly. 'Check ignition!' I shouted to him. 'Check fuel!' I made my voice sound scared. The airspeed indicator was dropping, the luminous pointer swinging back through 150, falling back towards the 100 mark. The altimeter needle was dropping, too, as the nose tilted earthwards. 'We're going down at about 800 a minute,' I shouted.

'Ignition okay,' he reported, his hand on the switches. 'Fuel okay.' His eyes were frantically scanning the instrument panel. 'It's an electrical fault - ignition, I think. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds must have overlooked some loose wiring.'

'Anything we can do?' I asked. 'We're down to three thousand already.'

'Doubt it. Not much time.'

'If you think there's anything we can do, say so. Otherwise I'm going to order the crew to bale out.' I had kept my inter-com mouthpiece close to my lips so that Field and Westrop could hear what we were saying.

Tubby straightened up. 'Okay. We'd better bale out.' His face looked stiff and strained in the light of the instrument panel.

'Get your parachutes on,' I ordered over the intercom. 'Field. You go aft and get the fuselage door open. We may have to ditch her.' Out of the tail of my eye I saw the two of them struggling with their parachutes. Field shouted something to Westrop and a moment later the bags containing the other two parachutes were slid on to the floor of the c.o.c.kpit. 'Get back to the fuselage door,' I told Westrop. 'I'll send Carter aft when I want you to jump.' I glanced at the altimeter dial. 'Height two-six,' I called to Tubby.

He straightened up. 'Nothing I can do,' he said. 'It's in the wiring somewhere.'

'Okay,' I said. 'Get aft and tell the others to jump. Give me a shout when you're jumping.'

He stood there, hesitating for a moment. 'Okay.' His hand gripped my arm. 'See you in the Russian Zone.' But he still didn't move and his hand remained gripping my arm. 'Would you like me to take her while you jump?' he asked.

I realised suddenly that he was remembering the last time I'd jumped, over Membury. He thought my nerve might have gone. I swallowed quickly. Why did he have to be so b.l.o.o.d.y decent about it? 'Of course not,' I said sharply. 'Get aft and look after yourself and the others.'

His eyes remained fixed on mine - brown, intelligent eyes that seemed to read my mind. 'Good luck!' He turned and dived quickly through towards the fuselage. Leaning out of my seat, I looked back and watched him climbing round the fuel tanks. I could just see the others at the open door of the fuselage. Tubby joined them. Westrop went first, then Field. Tubby shouted to me. 'Jump!' I called to him. The plane skidded slightly and I turned back to the controls, steadying her.

When I looked back down the length of the fuselage there was no one there. I was alone in the plane. I settled myself in my seat. Height one thousand six hundred. Airspeed ninety-five. I'd take her down to a thousand feet. That should put her below the horizon of the three who had jumped. Through the winds.h.i.+eld I saw a small point of light moving across the sky - the tail-light of one of the airlift planes holding steadily to its course: I wondered if those behind could see me. In case, I banked away and at the same time broke one of the wire contacts. The outboard port engine started immediately as I unfeathered the prop.

As I banked out of the traffic stream a voice called to me - 'You b.l.o.o.d.y fool, Neil. You haven't even got your parachute on.' I felt sudden panic grip me as I turned to find Tubby coming back into the c.o.c.kpit.

'Why the h.e.l.l haven't you jumped?'

'Plenty of time now,' he said calmly. 'Perhaps the other engines will pick up. I was worried about you, that's why I came back.'

'I can look after myself,' I snapped. 'Get back to that door and jump.'

I think he saw the panic in my eyes and misunderstood it. His gaze dropped to my parachute still in its canvas bag. 'I'll take over whilst you get into your parachute. With two engines we might still make Gatow.'

He was already sliding into the second pilot's seat now and I felt his hands take over on the controls. 'Now get your 'chute on, Neil,' he said quietly.

We sat there, staring at each other. I didn't know what the h.e.l.l to do. I glanced at the altimeter. The needle was steady at the thousand mark. His eyes followed the direction of my gaze and then he looked at me again and his forehead was wrinkled in a puzzled frown. 'You weren't going to jump, were you?' he said slowly.

I sat there, staring at him. And then I knew he'd got to come back to Membury with me. 'No,' I said. And with sudden violence, 'Why the h.e.l.l couldn't you have jumped when I told you?'

'I knew you didn't like jumping,' he said. 'What were you going to do - try and crash land?'

I hesitated. I'd have one more shot at getting him to jump. I edged my left hand down the side of my seat until I found the wires that connected to the ignition switch of that outboard port motor. I clipped them together and the motor died. 'It's gone again,' I shouted to him. I switched over to the automatic pilot. 'Come on,' I said. 'We're getting out.' I slid out of my seat and gripped him by the arm. 'Quick!' I said, half-pulling him towards the exit door.

I think I'd have done it that time, but he glanced back, and then suddenly he wrenched himself free of my grip. I saw him reach over the pilot's seat, saw him tearing at the wires, and as he unfeathered the props the motors picked up in a thrumming roar. He slid into his own seat, took over from the automatic pilot and as I stood there, dazed with the shock of discovery, I saw the altimeter needle begin to climb through the luminous figures of its dial.

Then I was clambering into my seat, struggling to get control of the plane from him. He shouted something to me. I don't remember what it was. I kicked at the rudder bar and swung the heavy plane into a wide banking turn. 'We're going back to Membury,' I yelled at him.

'Membury!' He stared at me. 'So that's it! It was you who fixed those wires. You made those boys jump' The words seemed to choke him. 'You must be crazy. What's the idea?'

I heard myself, laughing wildly. I was excited and my nerves were tense. 'Better ask Saeton,' I said, still laughing.

'Saeton!' He caught hold of my arm. 'You crazy fools! You can't get away with this.'

'Of course we can,' I cried. 'We have. n.o.body will ever know.' I was so elated I didn't notice him settling more firmly into his seat. I was thinking I'd succeeded. I'd done the impossible - I'd taken an aircraft off the Berlin airlift. I wanted to sing, shout, do something to express the thrill it gave me.

Then the controls moved under my hands. He was dragging the plane round, heading it for Berlin. For a moment I fought the controls, struggling to get the s.h.i.+p round. The compa.s.s wavered uncertainly. But he held on grimly. He had great strength. At length I let go and watched the compa.s.s swing back on to the lubber lines of our original course.

All the elation I had felt died out of me. 'For G.o.d's sake, Tubby,' I said. 'Try to understand what this means. n.o.body's going to lose over this. Harcourt will get the insurance. As for the airlift, in a few weeks the plane will be back on the job. Only then it will have our engines in it. We'll have succeeded. Doesn't success mean anything to you?' Automatically I was using Saeton's arguments over again.

But all he said was, 'You've dropped those boys into Russian territory.'

'Well, what of it?' I demanded hotly. 'They'll be ail right. So will Harcourt. And so will we.'

He looked at me then, his face a white mask, the little lines at the corners of his eyes no longer crinkled by laughter. He looked solid, unemotional - like a block of granite. 'I should have known the sort of person you were when you turned up at Membury like that. Saeton's a fanatic. I can forgive him. But you're just a dirty little crook who has'

He shouldn't have" said that. It made me mad - part fear, part anger. d.a.m.n his b.l.o.o.d.y high and mighty principles! Was he prepared to die for them? I reached down for the wires. My fingers were trembling and numb with the cold blast of the air that came in through the open doorway aft, but I managed to fasten the clips. The engines died away. The cabin was suddenly silent, a ghostly place of soft-lit dials and our reflections in the winds.h.i.+eld. We seemed suddenly cut off from the rest of the world. A white pin-point of light slid over us like a star - our one contact with reality, a plane bound for Berlin.

'Don't be a fool, Fraser!' Tubby's voice was unnaturally loud in the stillness.

I laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound. My nerves were keyed to the pitch of desperation. 'Either we fly to Membury,' I said, 'or we crash.' My teeth were clenched. It might have been a stranger's voice. 'You can jump if you want to,' I added, nodding towards the rear of the c.o.c.kpit where the wind whistled.

'Unfasten those wires!' he shouted. And when I made no move he said, 'Get them unfastened and start the motors or I'll hurt you.'

He was fumbling in the pocket beside his seat and his hand came out holding a heavy spanner. He let go the controls then. The plane dipped and slid away to port. Automatically I grasped the control column and righted her. At the same time he rose in his seat, the spanner lifted in his hand.

I flung myself sideways, lunging out at him. The spanner caught me across the shoulder and my left arm went numb. But I had hold of his flying suit now and was pulling him towards me. He had no room to use the spanner again. And at the same moment the plane dropped sickeningly. We were flung into the aisle and fetched up against the fuel tanks in the fuselage.

For a moment we stood there, locked together, and then he fought to get clear of me, to get back to start the motors again. I was determined he shouldn't. I'd take him down into the ground rather than fly on to Gatow to be accused of having attempted to take a plane off the airlift. I clutched hold of him, pinning his arms, bracing myself against the tanks. The plane lurched and we were flung between the tanks into the main body of the fuselage where the wind roared in through the open doorway. That lurch flung us against the door to the toilet, breaking us clear of each other. He raised the spanner to strike at me again and I hit him with my fist. The spanner descended, striking my shoulder again. I lashed out again. My fist caught his jaw and his head jerked back against the metal of the fuselage. At the same moment the plane seemed to fall away. We were both flung sideways. Tubby hit the side of the open doorway. I saw his head jerk back as his forehead caught a protruding section of the metal frame. Blood gleamed red in a long gash and his jaw fell slack. Slowly his legs gave under him.

As he fell I started forward. He was falling into the black rectangle of the doorway. I clutched at him, but the plane swung, jerking me back against the toilet door. And in that instant Tubby slid to the floor, his legs slowly disappearing into the black void of the slipstream. For an instant his thick torso lay along the floor, held there by the wind and the tilt of the plane. I could do nothing. I was pinned by the tilt of the plane, forced to stand there and watch as his body began to slide outwards, slowly, like a sack, the outstretched hands making no attempt to hold him. For a second he was there, sliding slowly out across the floor, and then the slip-stream whisked him away and I was alone in the body of the plane with only the gaping doorway and a thin trickle of blood on the steel flooring to show what had happened.

I shook myself, dazed with the horror of it. Then I closed the door and went for'ard. Almost automatically my brain registered the altimeter dial. Height 700. I slipped into the pilot's seat and with trembling fingers forced the wires apart. The engines roared. I gripped the control column and my feet found the rudder bar. I banked and climbed steeply. The lights of a town showed below me and the snaking course of a river. I felt sick at the thought of what had happened to Tubby. Height two-four. Course eight-five degrees. I must find out what had happened to Tubby.

I made a right, diving turn and levelled out at five hundred feet. I had to find out what had happened to him. If he'd regained consciousness and had been able to pull his parachute release .. . Surely the cold air would have revived him. G.o.d! Don't let him die, I was sobbing my prayer aloud. I went back along the course of the river, over the lights of the town. A road ran out of it, straight like a piece of tape and white in the moonlight. Then I shut down the engines and put down the flaps. This was the spot where Tubby had fallen. I searched desperately through the winds.h.i.+eld. But all I saw was a deserted airfield bordered by pine woods and a huddle of buildings that were no more than empty sh.e.l.ls. No sign of a parachute, no comforting mushroom patch of white.

I went back and forth over the area a dozen times.

The aerodrome and the woods and the bomb-shattered buildings stood out clear in the moonlight, but never a sign of the white silk of a parachute.

Tubby was dead and I had killed him.

Dazed and frightened I banked away from the white graveyard scene of the shattered buildings. I took the plane up to 10,000 feet and fled westward across the moon-filled night. Away to the right I could see the lines of planes coming in along the corridor, red and green navigation lights stretching back towards Lubeck. But in a moment they were gone and I was alone, riding the sky, with only the reflection of my face in the winds.h.i.+eld for company nothing of earth but the flat expanse of the Westphalian plain, white like a salt-pan below me.

CHAPTER SIX.

There was no problem of navigation to distract my mind on the homeward run. The earth lay like a white map below me. I found the North Sea at Flus.h.i.+ng, crossed the southern extremity of it, flying automatically, and just as automatically picked up the Thames estuary, following the curves of the river till it met the Kennet. And all the time I was remembering every detail of what had happened. It seemed such a waste that he should die like that. And all because he'd called me a crook. My face, ghostly in the winds.h.i.+eld, seemed to reflect the bitterness of my thoughts.

I had three hours in which to sort the thing out and face it. But I didn't face it. I know that now. I began that flight hating myself. I ended it by hating Saeton. It was he who had forced me into it. It was he, not I, who was responsible for Tubby's death. By the time I was over the Kennet I had almost convinced myself of that.

I dropped to a thousand feet in a mood of cold fury, picked up Ramsbury and swung north-east. The trees of Baydon Hill were a dark line and there, suddenly, were the hangars of Membury and, as I swept low over the field, I caught a glimpse of the quarters nestled snugly in their clearing in the woods. All just as I had left it. Nothing changed. Only a man dead and the moon bathing everything in a white unreal light.

I had no need of any flares. I skidded in a tight, vicious turn, dropped flaps and undercarriage, and slammed the machine down on to the runway not caring whether I smashed it up in the violence of my anger.

Saeton was at the hangar and came running out to meet me as I cut the engines. He was waiting for me as I stepped out on to the concrete, his face alive with excitement. 'Well done, Neil! Magnificent!' He seized my hand and wrung it.

I flung him off. I couldn't say anything. The words choked in my throat. He was gazing at the plane, caressing it with his eyes, like a father who has been presented with another son to replace one that has died. My hands clenched with the desire to hit out, to smash the eagerness of his face.

Then he turned and met my gaze. 'What's the trouble?' His hand reached out and caught my arm in a hard, unyielding grip. His voice was urgent, his mood tuned to mine.

I faced him then, my guts screwed up in a right little knot in my belly and my teeth clenched.'Tubby's dead,' I said.

'Dead?' His fingers dug into the muscles of my arm and he stared at me hard. Then his grip relaxed. 'What happened?' he asked, in a flat tone.

I told him what had happened - how Tubby's body had slumped unconscious through the fuselage door, how I'd searched the area and found no sign of a parachute. When I had finished he turned and stared at the plane. Then he shook himself. 'All right. Let's get the plane into the hangar.'

The plane!' I heard myself laugh. 'I tell you, Tubby's dead.'

'All right,' he said angrily. 'So he's dead. There's nothing you or I can do about it.'

'Diana was at Gatow,' I told him. 'She's working at the Malcolm Club there. I saw her yesterday.' I was remembering the sudden radiance of her face as she turned and found Tubby standing beside me.

'What's Diana got to do with it?' he asked angrily. 'She'll get over it. Now give me a hand with the hangar doors. We've got to get this plane under cover right away.'

Anger burst like a torrent inside me. 'My G.o.d! You callous b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You don't care who's killed so long as you get your b.l.o.o.d.y engines into the air. Nothing else matters to you. Can't you understand what's happened? He was unconscious when he fell through the door. And now he's lying out there beside a disused airfield in the Russian Zone. He's dead, and you killed him,' I screamed. 'And all you can think about is the plane. You haven't the decency even to say you're sorry. He was straight and honest and decent, and you wipe the memory off your mind as though he were no more than'

He hit me then, across the face with the flat of his hand. 'Shut your mouth!' His voice trembled, but it was without anger or violence. 'It doesn't occur to you, I suppose, that I was fond of Tubby? He was the nearest I ever had to a friend in my life.' He said that slowly as though he were explaining something to himself. Then he turned away, his shoulders hunched, his hands thrust into his trouser pockets as though he didn't trust them in the open. 'Now come and help me get the hangar doors opened.'

I followed him dully, tears stinging the back of my eyeb.a.l.l.s, blurring the white naked brilliance of the scene. He opened the wicket door, undid the bolts of the main doors and between us we slid them back. Moonlight flooded into the hangar, showing it strangely empty. The crashed Tudor was gone. All that remained of it was a jumbled heap of broken metal piled along each side of the hangar walls. And at the far end the bench with its lathes and machine tools stood deserted and silent. The whole place reeked of Tubby. I could see him beside me at that bench, whistling his flat, unending tunes, a grin crinkling his cheerful, sweaty face.

The engines of the plane roared. The vague outline of Saeton's head showed behind the gla.s.s of the winds.h.i.+eld as he turned it and taxied into the hangar. Between us we got the doors closed again. 'We'll go back to the quarters now,' he said. 'You need a drink.' His hand gripped my shoulder. 'I'm sorry, Neil. I should have let you blow off steam. You've had a h.e.l.l of anight.'

'I can't get the memory of Tubby out of my mind,' I said, more to myself than to him.

We walked through the woods in silence and went into the mess room. Nothing had changed - the same trestle table, the four chairs and the cupboard in the corner. But there were just the two of us now. I stood there, feeling cold and numb. 'Sit down,' he said, 'and I'll get you a drink.' He returned in a few minutes with two tumblers of whisky and a bundle of maps. 'Knock that back,' he said gently. 'You'll feel better then.'

As I drank he shuffled through the maps, picked out one and spread it flat on the table. 'Now then, where exactly did it happen?'

'I'd rather not talk about it,' I said dully.

He nodded. 'I understand how you feel. But I must get it pin-pointed whilst it's still vivid in your mind. Now. Here's Restorf at the entrance to the corridor. How soon did you cut out the engines?'

'About three minutes after Field had reported that we'd pa.s.sed the entrance beacon,' I answered.

'Field was your navigator?'

'Yes.'

'Speed?'

'About one-sixty knots.' I put down my tumbler. "What are you going to do?'

'I don't know yet.'

'Tubby's dead,' I said bitterly. 'He was unconscious when he went through the door. I searched the whole area. There wasn't any sign of a parachute. There's nothing we can do.' I looked at him, the beginnings of a decision forming in my mind. 'I must give myself up.'

'What good do you think that will do?' he demanded harshly.

I shook my head. 'None.' My voice was bitter. 'But I can't go on like this. Do you know what he called me? He called me a dirty little crook. That's what started it all.' I stared down at my drink. 'He was right, too. That's what hurt. First the 'Callahan' business. Now, this. Saeton, I can't go on with it. It'd drive me crazy. All the time I'd be thinking'

'Stop thinking about yourself,' he snapped. The vein on the side of his forehead was beginning to throb.

'We killed him,' I said dully. 'Between us, we killed him.'

'We did nothing of the sort,' he replied angrily. 'It was an accident.'

'He tried to stop me taking the plane. In the eyes of the law it would be'

'd.a.m.n the law! So you told him what you were doing?'

'I had to. He came back after the others had jumped.' I wiped my hand across my eyes. 'I've made up my mind,' I said. 'I can't go on'

'Oh, for G.o.d's sake!' he cried. And then he leaned towards me, his eyes fixed on mine. 'You think I'm callous about Tubby's death, don't you?' His gaze dropped slowly to the map and he shrugged his shoulders. 'Maybe it's happened too often before -men going out and not coming back. I had nearly a year in command of a bomber station out in France. I lost fifty-five in that year - just boys I knew who pa.s.sed through my life and were gone. Maybe I got hardened to it.' His eyes lifted and fastened on me again. 'But Tubby wasn't just a boy I knew. d.a.m.n it, we worked together for two years, side-by-side on the same project with the same end in view. When you told me he was dead, I could have killed you. You've bungled it, and through your bungling you've killed the one man I was really fond of. And now you have the b.l.o.o.d.y nerve to say you won't go through with the rest of the plan. Get this into your head, Neil. If you don't go through with it, you make Tubby's death utterly pointless. If it was necessary for him to die that a British company should get a world lead in air-freight transport, well and good. But if you're now going to'

'I must tell the police the whole thing,' I repeated obstinately.

'Why? Telling the police won't help. You say Tubby is dead. All right then. He's dead. But for the love of G.o.d let's see to it that his death was to some purpose.' He slewed the map round towards me. 'Now then. You dropped Field and the other fellow about there -correct? What happened then?'

'I banked away out of the traffic stream,' I answered, my voice trembling. 'Then Tubby came back to the c.o.c.kpit. He knew I was scared of jumps. He came back to make sure I got out. We were at about a thousand feet'

'And then?'

'Christ!' I said. 'Don't you see? It was because he was so b.l.o.o.d.y decent. That was why he died. Because he was so b.l.o.o.d.y decent. He was afraid I wouldn't jump. He was going to take the controls . ..' I was almost sobbing.

Saeton pushed the tumbler into my hand. 'Drink up,' he said. The drink produced a little oasis of warmth in the cold pit of my stomach. 'You're at a thousand feet. What happened then?'

I swallowed another mouthful. 'I was on two motors then. I cut one. I nearly convinced him. He was just going aft again when he saw the clips. He took control then and turned the machine back into the corridor.'

'I see. And you tried to persuade him to make for Membury. That's when you told him our plan?'

That's right. But he wouldn't. His Methodist upbringing. You told me about that. You warned me ...' My mind was confused now. I felt d.a.m.nably tired.