D-Notice by Bill Walker (big ebook reader txt) 📗

remembered from his school days, most of this land was reclaimed from the sea by the complex system of dykes and sea walls used to hold it at bay. If ever the fight came here, Thorley thought, all the Germans would need to do to halt an advancing army would be to blow up the dykes. It was a thought that chilled him as much as the cool breeze that blew in from the sea, where a bank of ugly gray clouds sat hovering over the water like some giant carrion eater.

Because of the threat of bad weather, it appeared that they had the airport to themselves. The only other people, aside from the Major and the flight crew now doing stretching exercises a few yards away, were the two Dutch ground crewmen hooking up the hose from the fuel truck to the nozzle on the wing. Two Luftwaffe guards attached to the airfield stood nearby, rifles pointed at the ground, their eyes dull with boredom. Thorley watched the two Dutchmen for a moment, noting their furtive glances, glances that barely masked the hostility they felt. It made his skin crawl.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Major move up beside him, an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth. The Major stared at the ground crew, watching them with a bemused expression, and then he spoke, his voice thick with irony. “How does it feel, Herr Thorley?”

“What do you mean?”

“I think you know.”

They were silent again for a moment.

“I think perhaps I’ll have one of those cigarettes, after all,” Thorley said.

The Major smiled and motioned for him to move away from the plane. At a safe distance, the Major extended the cigarette case, Thorley took one, placed it between his lips and bent toward the flaming match the Major offered. The German then lit his own, and they spent a moment of silence watching the ground crew work. Thorley coughed. The cigarette tasted dry, acrid, as if it had lain in a box for years. Still, it was a welcome respite from the thoughts and feelings that ran through his mind. “What’s your name?” he asked, breaking the silence once again.

“It is better you do not know,” the Major said, picking a piece of tobacco from his teeth. “Let us say that my being here is because I choose to aid a cause that needs my help. Honor demands it.” He faced Thorley, his ice-blue eyes narrowing. “My country was founded on the concept of honor, Herr Major, the concept that a man was as good as his word. Now, certain factions are doing their very best to destroy what honor we have left. And I can’t stand by anymore.... Do you understand?”

Thorley nodded. “I believe I do. What I can’t understand is how your people allowed all this to happen in the first place.”

The Major coughed, then spat out another piece of tobacco. “That is something historians will debate for generations,” he said, smiling bitterly. “The truth is that we Germans are a race that worships power and those who wield it. This time, I’m afraid, we’ve gone too far.”

Before Thorley could reply, the ground crew signaled the refueling was finished. The Major threw down his cigarette, squashed it out with a twist of his highly polished riding boot, and walked back to the Heinkel without another word. Thorley followed him into the plane. Five minutes later, they were airborne, and Thorley’s thoughts and emotions became a jumble. Now, more than ever, he was afraid of what he would find at his destination.

Chapter Eight

They crossed over into Finnish airspace just after 1 p.m. local time. The Heinkel hugged the landscape, giving Thorley a dramatic view of the untamed forests of thick evergreens, of snow-capped mountains and deep valleys dotted with lakes and the remnants of ancient glaciers. It was a land that few had mastered.

Half an hour passed, then the Heinkel banked left and dropped lower. The pilot throttled back the engines and the aircraft shuddered as the landing gear caught the airstream.

Thorley’s anticipation rose, fighting for supremacy with another feeling that was all-too-familiar…fear. He was flying directly into the maw of the beast, and protection or not, once he landed, once he placed himself in their hands, all bets were off. The thought of it chilled him.

The plane swooped down into a shallow valley, making a rough landing on an airstrip hewn directly out of the virgin forest: an earth-brown gash in a field of verdant green. Off to the side, he saw mountains of tree stumps waiting for burning, mute evidence of a grueling effort to wrest the airstrip from the grip of nature.

The pilot taxied the Heinkel to the end of the airstrip and turned about, parking the aircraft next to a makeshift fuel dump. While the plane rolled across the craggy ground, Thorley used the time to collect his gear and position himself near the exit hatch. As soon as the aircraft came to a stop, the engines powered down, plunging the cabin into an eerie silence broken only by the soughing wind. The Major emerged from the cockpit, his face drawn with concern.

“We’re getting reports of a weather front moving in by six p.m. tomorrow. We will wait until four. If you’re not back by then, we take off without you.”

“That’s not what was agreed.”

The Major waved his hand impatiently. “That does not matter. I will not jeopardize this plane and my crew—”

“For a verdamt Englander?” Thorley said, voice tight with anger. “Where’s your honor now, Major?”

“That’s not fair—”

“And war is? You will wait for me, weather permitting or not, or I shall see to it that those responsible for my being here will