I stared at him foolishly. ‘You are crazy,’ I heard myself say. ‘You’d never get away with it. There’d be an inquiry. The plane would be recognised when they saw it again. Harcourt’s not a fool. Besides-’
He stopped me with a wave of his hand. ‘You’re wrong. To begin with an inquiry would show nothing. The crew would say the plane had made a forced landing in the Russian Zone. The Russians would deny it. Nobody would believe them. As for the plane being recognised, why should it? Nobody knows we’ve crashed our machine here. At least they don’t know how badly. All that happens is that a plane disappears on the Berlin Airlift and on January 10 another flies in to take its place. Harcourt’s all right — he gets his insurance. The country’s all right, for the number of Tudors remains the same. God, man — it sticks out a mile. You’ll make a fortune. We’ll both of us make a fortune.’
‘You’d never get away with it,’ I repeated obstinately.
‘Of course I’ll get away with it. Why should they ever suspect anything? And if they did, what then? Look. Part numbers and engine numbers can be altered to those of our wrecked Tudor. Our own two engines will be in her. As for our own plane, we’ll cut it up into small bits. You’ve already started on that work. In a few days we could have the whole plane in fragments. A load of those fragments can be strewn over Russian territory. The rest we’ll dump in that pond over on the far side of the airfield. God! It’s too easy. All I need is for you to fly Harcourt’s plane back here.’
‘Well, I won’t do it,’ I said angrily.
‘Do you want the Germans to be the first to produce these engines?’ His hand came out and gripped my shoulder. ‘Just think before you refuse, Damn it, haven’t you a spark of adventure in you? A slight risk and this country can have the biggest fleet of freighters in the world — a global monopoly.’ His eyes were blazing and I suddenly felt scared. The man was a fanatic.
‘I won’t do it,’ I repeated stubbornly.
‘When you’ve flown the plane in here all we have to do is drop you just inside the British Zone,’ he went on.
‘You report back to Wunstorf with the story that you made a forced landing in the Russian Zone and got back under your own steam across the frontier. It’s child’s play.’
‘I won’t do it.’
He gave an ugly laugh. ‘Scared, eh?’
I hesitated, trying to sort out in my mind whether it was because I was scared or whether my refusal was on moral grounds. I couldn’t sort it out. All I knew was that I didn’t want to be mixed up in anything like this. I wanted to forget that sense of being hunted. I didn’t want ever again to have anything on my conscience, to have to run and hide — I didn’t want to be afraid of the world any more.
He suddenly let go my arm. ‘All right,’ he said, and I didn’t like the softness in his voice and the way he smiled down at me. ‘All right, if that’s the way you feel.’ He paused, watching me with an odd expression in his eyes. ‘Do you remember the other evening I said I’d do anything to get hold of a plane?’
I nodded.
‘Well, I meant that. I meant every word of it. I said I was desperate. I am desperate. If one man’s life stood between me and getting into the air, I’d kill that man. I’d brush him out of my way without a thought. Bigger things than a single life are involved. It’s not just my own future I’m thinking of. Don’t think that. I happen to believe in my country. And I believe that these engines are the greatest contribution I can make to my country. There’s nothing I won’t do to see these engines are operated by a British concern. Nothing. Nothing.’
His voice had risen and there was a wild look in his eyes. ‘Forget about yourself. Forget about me. Won’t you do this for your country?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘God, man! You fought for your country in war. You risked your life. Have some imagination. Can’t you fight for her in peacetime? I’m not asking you to risk your life. All I’m asking you to do is to fly that plane back here. What’s the trouble? You’re not damaging Harcourt. Or is it the risk you’re afraid of? I tell you, there isn’t any risk. Do it the way I’ve planned it and you’re as safe as houses. You’ve nothing to be afraid of.’
‘I’m not afraid,’ I answered hotly.
‘What’s the trouble then?’
‘I just don’t like it and I won’t do it.’
He sighed, and eased himself off the edge of the table. ‘All right. If that’s the way you want it-’ He stood for a moment, looking down at me. The room was suddenly very silent. I felt my nerves tightening so that I wanted to shout at him, to do anything to relieve the tension. At length he said, ‘If you don’t do what I want you to I’ll turn you over to the police.’ He spoke quite flatly and my inside seemed to curl up into a tight ball. ‘You were in a prison camp, weren’t you? You know what it’s like then. Three years in prison is quite a slice out of a man’s life. Do you think you could stand it? You’d go mad, wouldn’t you? You were on the edge of hysteria when you came here. You’re all right now, but in prison-’
‘You bastard!’ I screamed at him, suddenly finding my voice. I called him a lot of other names. I had got to my feet and I was trembling all over, the sweat breaking out in prickling patches across my scalp and trickling down my forehead. I was cold with fear and anger. And he just stood there, watching me, his shoulders hunched a little forward as though expecting me to charge him, a quiet, confident smile on his lips.
‘Well?’ he said as I paused for breath. ‘Which is it to be?’
‘You’re crazy,’ I cried. ‘And you’re trying to drive me crazy, too. I won’t do it. Suppose one of the crew were killed? Suppose they did discover what had happened? And if I did it — then I’d have something on you. You wouldn’t stand for that. Somehow you’d get rid of me. You’re not doing this for your country. You’re doing it for yourself. Your love of power is driving you — driving you over the edge of reason. You can’t get away with a thing like-’
“Which is it to.be?’ he cut in, his lips tightening and his voice suddenly cold and metallic. ‘Do you take this job with Harcourt or do I telephone the police? I’ll give you half an hour to make up your mind.’ He hesitated and then said slowly, ‘Just remember what it’s like to be locked away in a cell, seeing the sun through iron bars, with no hope — and no future when you get out. I’m offering you a flying job — and a future. Now sit down and make up your mind.’ He turned abruptly then and went out.
With the closing of the door the room seemed suddenly empty and silent. The key grated in the lock. It was like the turning of the key in the solitary confinement cells — only there the door had been of metal and had clanged. Stalag Luft 1, with its lines of huts, the barbed wire, the endless march of the guards, the searchlights at night, the deadly monotony, was there in my mind, as vivid as though I had only just escaped. Surely ‹% God I’d had enough of life behind bars. Surely to God….
CHAPTER FIVE
I wont attempt to defend my decision. Saeton had asked me to steal a plane and I agreed to do it. I must take full responsibility, therefore, for all that happened afterwards as a result of that decision.
We went down to Ramsbury and in the smoky warmth of the pub that faces the old oak, he went over the plan in detail. I know it sounds incredible — to steal a plane off such a highly organised operation as the Berlin Airlift and then, after replacing two of the engines, to fly it back to Germany and operate it from the same airfield from which it had been stolen. But he had it all worked out. And when he had gone over all the details, it didn’t seem incredible any more.
The devil of it was the man’s enthusiasm was infectious. I can see him now, talking softly in the hubbub of the bar, his eyes glittering with excitement, smoking cigarette after cigarette, his voice vibrant as he reached out into my mind to give me the sense of adventure that he felt himself. The essence of his personality was that he could make others believe what he believed. In any project, he gave himself to it so completely that it was impossible not to follow him. He was a born leader. From being an unwilling participant, I became a willing one. Out of apparent failure he conjured the hope of success, and he gave me something positive to work for. I think it was the daring of the plan that attracted me more than anything else. And, of course, I was up to the hilt in the thing financially. I may have thought it was money better thrown away considering how I’d got it, but no one likes to be broke when he is shown a way to make a fortune. The only thing he didn’t allow for was the human factor.