‘A sod this,’ he said to Steiner.
‘It will make us late for the rendezvous, I presume?’ Steiner said.
‘A midnight departure was the aim. We’re not done yet.’
Munro said from the back, ‘Put a bit of a spoke in your wheel, this lot, Mr Devlin.’
Devlin ignored him and kept on going. Once they were through Greenwich, there was much less traffic and he was able to make better time. He lit a cigarette with one hand. ‘We’re on our way now.’
Munro said, ‘I wouldn’t count your chickens.’ Devlin said, ‘You’re a great man for the sayings, Brigadier. What about one from the Bible? The laughter “of fools is as the crackling of thorns under a pot?’ and he increased speed.
The Carver brothers in the Humber had exactly the same problem getting out of London and Eric managed to take the wrong turning in Greenwich town centre, going three miles in the other direction. It was Jack who sorted him, getting out the RAC handbook and checking their route.
‘It’s bleeding simple. Greenwich to Maidstone, Maidstone to Ashford. From there you take the road to Rye and we turn off halfway for Charbury.’
‘But there’s hardly any road signs these days, you know that, Jack,’ Eric said.
‘Yes, well, there’s a war on, isn’t there, so just get on with it.’
Jack Carver leaned back, closed his eyes and had a nap.
There was a school of thought in both the Luftwaffe and RAF that recommended approaching an enemy coastline below the radar screen all the way on important missions. Asa remembered trying that with his old squadron during the Russo-Finnish war, coming in low off the sea to catch the Reds by surprise, all nice copy-book stuff, only.nobody had counted on the presence of the Russian Navy. Five planes, that one had cost.
So, he charted a course for Dungeness that took him along the Channel in a dead straight line. There were strong crosswinds and that slowed him down, but it was good monotonous flying and all he had to do was check for drift every so often. He stayed at eight thousand for most of the way, well above the fog, keeping a weather eye cocked for other planes.
When it came, it took even an old hand like him by surprise, the Spitfire that lifted out of the fog, banked and took up station to starboard. Up there, visibility was good with a half-moon and Asa could see the pilot of the Spitfire clearly in the cockpit in helmet and goggles. The American raised a hand and waved.
A cheerful voice crackled over his radio. ‘Hello, Lysander, what are you up to?’
‘Sorry,’ Asa replied. ‘Special Duties Squadron, operating out of Tempsford.’
‘A Yank, are you?’
‘In the RAF,’ Asa told him.
‘Saw the movie, old man. Terrible. Take care.’ The Spitfire banked away to the east very fast and disappeared into the distance.
Asa said softly, ‘That’s what comes of living right, old buddy.’
He went down into the fog until his altimeter showed a thousand feet, then turned in towards Dun-geness and Romney Marsh.
Shaw had his meal and a considerable amount of whisky after it. He was slumped in his chair beside the sitting room fire, his shotgun on the floor, when Lavinia went in.
‘Oh, Max,’ she said. ‘What am I going to do with you?’
He stirred when she put a hand on his shoulder and looked up. ‘Hello, old girl. Everything all right?’
She went to the French windows and opened the curtains. The fog was as thick as ever. She closed the curtains and went back to him. ‘I’m going to go down to the barn, Max. It must be close now, the plane, I mean.’
‘All right, old girl.’
He folded his arms and turned his head, closing his eyes again and she gave up. She went into the study and hurriedly took down the radio’s aerial and then she packed everything into the carrying case. When she opened the front door Nell slipped out beside her and they went down to the South Meadow together.
She stood outside the barn listening. There was no sound, the fog embracing everything. She went in and switched on the light. There was a workbench by the door. She set the radio up there, running the aerial wires along the wall, looping them over rusting old nails. She put on the headphones and switched to the voice frequency as Devlin had shown her and heard Asa Vaughan’s voice instantly.