Where Eagles Dare

'I don't think so.' Admiral Holland spoke gently and for the first time, moving from the wall-map to join the group. Admiral Holland always spoke gently. When you wielded the almost incredible range of power that he did, you didn't have to talk loudly to make yourself heard. He was a short, grey-haired man, with a deeply trenched face and an air of immense authority. 'No,' he repeated, 'I don't think so. Nor do I think that your grasp of the realities of the situation is any match for your total ruthlessness. The captured man, Lieutenant General Carnaby, is an American. If we were to destroy him General Eisenhower would probably launch his Second Front against us instead of against the Germans.' He smiled deprecatingly, as though to remove rebuke from his voice. There are certain--urn--niceties to be observed in our relationship with our Allies. Wouldn't you agree?'

Carraciola didn't agree or disagree. He had, apparently, nothing to say. Neither did anyone else. Colonel Wyatt-Turner cleared his throat.

'That's it then, gentlemen.Ten o'clock tonight at the airfield. No more questions, I take it?'

'Yes, sir, there bloody well is, begging the Colonel's pardon, sir.' Sergeant George Harrod not only sounded heated, he looked it, too. 'What's all this about? Why's this geezer so bloody important? Why the hell do we have to risk our necks--'

"That'll do, Sergeant.' Wyatt-Turner's voice was sharp, authoritative. 'You know all you require to know--'

'If we're sending a man to what may be his death, Colonel, I think he has the tight to know why,' Admiral Holland interrupted gently, almost apologetically. 'The rest know. He should too. It's painfully simple, Sergeant. General Carnaby is the overall co-ordinator of planning for the exercise known as Operation Overlord--the Second Front. It would be absolutely true to say that he knows more about the Allied preparations for the Second Front than any man alive.

'He set off last night to meet his opposite numbers in theMiddle East ,Russia and the Italian Front to co-ordinate final plans for the invasion ofEurope . The rendezvous was inCrete --the only meeting point the Russians would accept. They haven't a plane fast enough to out-run the German fighters. The British Mosquito can--but it didn't last night.'

'And if the General talks--'

'He'll talk,'Holland said. The voice was soft, but it carried total conviction. 'As Mr. Thomas has just said, they all talk. He won't be able to help himself. A mixture of mescalin and scopolamine.'

'And he'll tell them all the plans for the Second Front.' The words came as from a man in a dream. 'When, where, how--Good God, sir, we'll have to call the whole thing off!'

'Precisely. We call it off. No Second Front this year. Another nine months on the war, another million lives needlessly lost. You understand the urgency, Sergeant, the sheer desperate urgency of it all?'

'I understand, sir. Now I understand.' Harrod turned to Wyatt-Turner. 'Sorry I spoke like that, sir. I'm afraid--well, I'm a bit edgy, sir.'

"We're all a bit edgy, Sergeant. Well, the airfield atten o'clock and we'll check the equipment.' He smiled without humour. 'I'm afraid the uniforms may not fit too well. This is early closing day in Savile Row.'

Sergeant Harrod huddled more closely into his bucket seat, beat freezing hands against freezing shoulders, morosely surveyed his uniform, wrinkled like an elephant's legs and about three sizes too big for him, then raised his voice above the clamour of theLancaster 's engines.

'Well,' he said bitterly, 'he was right about the bloody uniforms, anyway.'

'And wrong about everything else,' Carraciola said heavily. 'I still say we should have sent in theLancaster 's.'

Smith, still standing against the starboard fuselage, lit a cigarette and eyed him speculatively. He opened

In the flight-deck, now slid so impossibly far forward in his seat that the back of his head rested on the back of his seat, Wing Commander Carpenter was still deeply and contentedly pre-occupied with pipe, coffee and literature. Beside him, Flying Officer Tremayne was obviously failing to share his mood of pleasurable relaxation. He was, in fact, keeping a most anxious watch, his eyes constantly shifting from the instrument panel to the opaque darkness beyond the windscreen to the recumbent figure of his superior officer who appeared to be in danger of dropping off to sleep at any moment. Suddenly Tremayne sat far forward in his seat, stared for long seconds through the windscreen ahead of him then turned excitedly to Carpenter.

There's Schaffhausen down there, sir!'

Carpenter groaned heavily, closed his book, swung back the hinged book-rest, finished his coffee, levered himself upright with another groan, slid open his side-screen and made an elaborate pretence of examining the loom of light far below, without, however, actually going to the lengths of exposing his face to the wind and the driving snow outside. He closed the screen and looked at Tremayne.