“I don’t understand that.”
“I am now possessed, the London station chief feels, of such hot s( crets that my capture cannot be risked, and therefore I can’t go on the, backup flight.”
“So I’m to go,” Whittaker said. “I’m not finished,” Canidy said.
“After I was admitted to all the secret crap, and Stevens went back to the OSS, the duty officer told him that Commander Whatsisname-” “Logan,” Whittaker impatiently furnished the name of the NATC aircraft pilot. “-Logan had yet to report in, So Stevens called back out here, and the flight engineer said he had heard from him. They were in Liverpool, and Liverpool is socked in. The captain Commander Logan had gone to see was in Liverpool. That was the first time Stevens had heard that,” “What time is Logan due here?”
“The train will get them here sometime around noon, I understand,” Canidy said.
“The weather has been updated-would you like a report? I’ve been running over to the weather office every fifteen minutes or so since about one this morning when the chief of station arrived out here.
Liverpool is thick ground fog, visibility about two and a half feet, and expected to worsen. Oh yeah, and I seem to have left out that at midnight Colonel Stevens woke me up and told me it might be a good idea if I came out here.”
“What about another crew?” Whittaker said. “There ought to be lot of people who can fly C-46s around here.”
“Not as many as everybody thought,” Canidy said.
“And none we can find with a Top Secret security clearance, which the station chief has thrown into the equation. The Air Force is working on that. If they find somebody, then we have the problem of getting them here.”
“You and I could fly it,’ Whittaker said. “You said the engineer is here.”
“You weren’t listening,’ Canidy said.
“I can’t go. I know too much.”
“So what happens now?” Canidy nodded again toward the station chief and Colonel Stevens, who were hovering around the telephone.
“We wait for the phone to ring,” Canidy said. “Jesus Christ,” Whittaker said. The phone never rang. But ten minutes later, after Canidy had looked at his wristwatch yet again, a motorcycle messenger arrived outside the hangar. “I don’t like that,” Canidy said. “How do you know what it is?” Whittaker asked. “If it were good news,” Canidy said, “they would have called and said something mysterious that would have let him know. Shit, they’re down. They’ve probably been down for hours.” The chief of station took the message, read it, and handed it to Colonel Stevens. They exchanged no more than six words, and then Stevens waved Canidy and Whittaker over to them. As they approached, the station chief took the message back from Stevens. “We can’t wait any longer,” Stevens said.
“We have just been authorized to take any risk considered necessary.”
“Such as sending two fighter pilots to Africa in a C-46? ” Canidy said.
“The risk, Major Canidy,” the station chief said coldly, “is that you would find yourself being interrogated by the Germans. it has been decided that the mission is worth running that risk.”
“So we go?”
Canidy asked. “Yes, Dick, as soon as you can get in the air,” Stevens said. “I want to see you alone a moment, Whittaker,” the station chief said. “I’ll go wake up the engineer and tell him to wind the rubber bands, Canidy said, “Colonel, where’s the flight plan?”
“The engineer has it,” Stevens said.
Ten minutes later, Canidy called the Croydon tower and reported that NATS Four-oh-two was at the threshold of the active and requested takeoff clearance. “NATS Four-oh-two, hold your position. I have a C-54 trying to land at this time.”
“Roger, Croydon,” Canidy said.
“Four-oh-two holding on the threshold. Whittaker got out of his seat.
“Don’t go anywhere without me,” he said.
Canidy wondered where the hell he was going, then realized that Whittaker needed to take a leak. Whittaker came back as an Air Transport Command C-54 roared past and touched down. C’I hope the rubber bands don’t break and we have to come back,” Canidy said.
“I’d hate to try to land here in this shit, He looked at Whittaker as he spoke. Whittaker was extending a small snub-nosed Smith & Wesson revolver toward him. “Put this where you won’t shoot yourself,” he said.” Where’d you get that?” i’the station chief gave me one, and he gave the engineer one. I just took that one away from the engineer.”