The Final Flight by James Blatch (books to read in your 30s .TXT) 📗

smart, confident woman with a peace girl living in a tent.

She arrived back at the table.

He opened his mouth to speak.

“So what did he find?” she asked before he got the first word out.

“I can’t possibly discuss that with you.”

“I understand.” She nodded. “OK, let’s try this. I am not, as you might have guessed, a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. I was in fact under cover, keeping an eye on the subversive types from within. So. Now you know my secret and you could easily compromise me, isn’t it fair we share some information? After all, I’m not going to hand the box back unless I’m sure the security of the country is not at risk from you.”

“From me?”

She shrugged. “I don’t really know what you were doing with it, Mr May. All I know is, you’re desperate to get it back.”

He looked around the pub again. The farmers had sat down. The man with the golden retriever was still at the bar, and two other couples sat at nearby tables.

“You work for the police?” he asked.

“Sort of. A little higher up the chain. I’m the sort of person who could have helped your friend, if events hadn’t intervened.”

“You would have helped him?”

“He asked for my help. In fact we were due to meet on Saturday morning. He trusted me, Rob. So I think you can.”

“You were due to meet Millie?”

She nodded. “Yes. In St Mary and St Mellor church. I was ready to listen to whatever it was he had to say. But he died, hours before. And I’m finding it hard to see that as a coincidence.”

Rob put a hand to his forehead and rested one elbow on the table. He gave a long, deep sigh.

“I just don’t know. I don’t know anymore.”

“What don’t you know?”

He shook his head. “The crash. It wasn’t deliberate. But…”

“But?”

Rob sat upright and stared at her.

“I think I’ve been played.”

He picked up the cryptic notes. “I can’t decipher these notes exactly, but it’s clear that Millie believed the system was flawed. I’m guessing that’s what the numbers are about. The thing is…” He stared at Millie’s handwriting. “The thing is, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“It doesn’t?”

Rob shook his head. “No. The crash proved his point and in one way it achieved his aim. It’s put paid to the project. At the worst possible price.”

“So, Guiding Light is dead?”

“Yes. The Chairman of the Board of Inquiry has as good as told me they know the cause and it can only be the laser.”

“Laser?”

“Forget I said that, please.”

“Sure. But what I don’t get here, Rob, is how your place operates. Millie was a senior officer, right? If he had concerns, why were you still flying?”

Rob bowed his head. “I suspect that’s what Millie was going to talk to you about. There was no hard evidence. Just one moment when it may have gone wrong. So his objection was overruled.”

“Your boss overruled the concerns of his pilots?”

“Millie was an air electronics officer.”

Rob studied the bubbles in his pint.

“Oh, I see,” said Susie. “It was just Millie. So you didn’t believe him, either?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I mean… I sided with the boss because it felt like the right thing to do at the time.”

Susie leant back, not taking her eyes off him. For once she said nothing.

“It was confusing. Kilton, he’s the boss, he convinced me the system was working normally. I agreed for the sake of the project. I gave him an alternative explanation.” He met Susie’s eyes. “I did think it was the right thing, doing what experienced test pilots would do. They’ve seen everything and don’t get fazed by the odd moment in the air.

“Plus, he’s my boss. He gave me all this spiel about Millie being old and about to retire. He said that I was the future and when things happen quickly in jets, it needs fast acting decision makers like me. What else could I do?”

Again, Susie stayed quiet.

“Is Kilton in trouble now it turns out Milford was right?” she asked eventually.

Rob shook his head. “I doubt it. That’s not the way it works. I don’t even know if there’s an official record of the first incident. But he’s lost the project he was so devoted to. So I guess that’s punishment enough.”

She finished her drink and scooped up the piece of paper, clipping it back into her handbag.

“Right, well. That’s that, then. It sounds like the crash did the job Milford wanted, only he paid a heavy price.”

She placed a hand on his. “Look, I doubt an intervention from you would have made any difference. If I know the military and men like Kilton, they don’t have their minds changed easily and they get their own way.”

“I didn’t even try.”

“Well, it’s done now.”

She stood up.

Rob stayed at his seat, her casually spoken words tearing into him.

“What about the box?” she asked.

Slowly, he got to his feet.

“Actually, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I can’t imagine strolling into West Porton and handing it back. They’d want to know exactly why I had it. Plus, I think Kilton would use it to destroy Millie’s reputation and try to get the project back.”

“Want me to dispose of it?”

“Can you burn the documents? I think it’s the only guaranteed way to ensure they don’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“I’m not sure Mrs Holleroid allows bonfires at the Prickwillow B&B, but I’m sure I can organise something. Leave it with me.”

Rob paid the bill at the bar and they walked out together and stood near a VW Beetle in the gravel car park.

“It was nice meeting you, Mr May.”

“And you. Goodbye, Susie.”

She looked back at the inn, then gave him a goodbye kiss.

“Just for show, you understand?”

He watched her climb into the car before wandering off to his own.

She drove off quickly. He started the engine, suddenly feeling numb.

Her question had wounded him.

Oh, I see. It was just Millie. So you didn’t believe him, either?

He found it hard to drive.

After