‘That Tubby is alive.’
‘I hadn’t forgotten that.’ He leaned closer to me, his eyes still on my face. ‘I can cope with your evidence or Tubby’s evidence, but riot the two of you together.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘If you do as I want you to, it doesn’t matter to me if Tubby does get out alive. A fantastic story told by a man who has been badly injured wouldn’t carry much weight. Now as regards compensation for yourself. I’m prepared to offer you £10,000 and of course your posi tion as a director of the firm would stand. And don’t think I won’t have the money to pay you. I’ll have all the money I want in a few days’ time.’
‘And you’ll leave Tubby to rot in that farmhouse?’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I can’t do anything about getting him out, if that’s what you mean. If you admit the Russian report to be true, then I must accept it that he’s dead.’
‘And if I send in this report?’ I asked.
He glanced at his watch and then got to his feet. Time I was going.’ He paused, looking down at me. ‘If you send in that report, nothing will come of it. That I can assure you. Without Tubby’s corroborative evidence it will be disregarded. And I’ll see to it that there is no corroborative evidence.’
I stared at him. His tone was so easy and natural it was difficult to believe that there was any sort of a threat behind his words. ‘What do you mean by that?’ I asked him.
‘Think it out for yourself, Neil. But remember this. I haven’t come all this way with those engines to be beaten now.’
‘And either way Tubby doesn’t get brought back for hospital treatment?’
He nodded. ‘Either way Tubby remains where he is.’
‘By God, you’re a callous bastard,’ I said. ‘I thought he was the only man you were ever fond of?’
That touched him on the raw and his face darkened with sudden passion. ‘Do you think I like the thought of him out there in the Russian Zone? But I can’t help it. This thing is a lot bigger than the comfort of one man. I think I told you once that if one man stood between me and getting those engines into the air, I’d brush him aside. Well, that still holds good. As far as I’m concerned, Tubby is dead.’ He glanced at his watch again. ‘Well, think it over, Neil.’ His tone was once more even and friendly. ‘Either way you won’t help Tubby, so you might just as well tear up that report.’ He hesitated and then he said gently, ‘We’ve come a long way together in a short time, Neil. I’d like to know that we were going on together. You’ve done all you could to help when the going was tough. Don’t shut yourself out from the thing just as it’s starting to go well. I’d like us to continue the partnership.’ He nodded cheerily and opened the door. A moment later it had closed on his thick, burly figure and I was alone again.
I lay there for a moment going over in my mind that incredible conversation, appalled at Saeton’s complete lack of any moral sense. This was the third time in our short acquaintance that he had forced a desperate choice on me. But this time it never entered my head to agree to his terms. I didn’t even consider them. I was Chinking only of Tubby. Somehow I had got to get him out.
I don’t know quite when I reached the decision to get out of the sick bay. It just seemed to come as a logical answer to my problem. So long as I remained there, I should be taken out on the P 19 flight in the morning and then there would be no chance of doing anything for Tubby. On the other hand, if I were clear of Gatow, free of the whole organisation, then there might still be a chance.
As soon as I had reached that decision I set to work again on the report. By ten-fifteen it was done. After that I lay back, shielding my eyes from the light, waiting. Shortly before eleven the nurse came in. ‘Lights not out yet?’ She patted the pillows into place. ‘You’re looking tired now. My! What a lot you have written to your girl-friend.’
‘It isn’t to my girl-friend,’ I said rather sharply. ‘Where’s the M.O.?’
‘He’s not coming to see you tonight. But don’t worry. He’ll be here first thing in the morning.’
The morning was no good. This must be read tonight by somebody in authority. ‘Do you know Squadron Leader Pierce?’ I asked.
‘Of course.’
‘Will you do something for me? Will you get this to him tonight?’ I folded the numbered sheets across and handed them to her. ‘Will you see that he gets it personally?’
‘And I suppose it’s urgent?’ She smiled indulgently as she took the sheets from me. ‘All right. I’ll see he gets it if you promise to be a good boy and go to sleep.’
‘I’ll sleep if I know that will reach Pierce tonight. Will you promise that, sister? When he’s read it, he’ll understand the urgency.’
She nodded seriously, humouring me with an imitation of my own mood. ‘Now, you go to sleep. Goodnight.’
The room was suddenly in darkness as she switched out the light. I had to suppress an urge to leap out of bed and go with her to the mess. But it wouldn’t help. She’d only think I was mad and she’d call the M.O. and between them they’d drug me into a coma until I was on that damned plane and out of Berlin. The door closed with a decisive click and I lay there suddenly aware that I was alone again and all that stood between Tubby and complete disbelief of his need for help were a few flimsy sheets of paper in the hands of a nurse who thought I was slightly nuts.
I waited for about half an hour and then I slipped out of bed and groped my way to the door. A blast of cold air swept past me as I opened it. A blue-painted bulb showed me the top of some stairs and a corridor. The concrete flooring was bitterly cold against the soles of my feet.
I found the cupboard. My clothes were still there and I bundled them over my arm and slipped back into the room. It took me some time to dress in the dark, fumbling awkwardly with the laces of my cold, wet shoes, tugging at the zip of my flying suit. Finally I struggled into the heavy German greatcoat and jammed the forage cap over the bandages that circled my head.
Thinking back on it now I suppose I was still a little dazed with the exhaustion of the last few days, for I had no plan and as far as I can remember my mind made no effort to grapple with the problem of what I intended to do. I just knew I had to get out of the clutches of the Gatow authorities before they flew me out and, like an automaton who can only manage one idea at a time, I worked towards that end without a thought to the future.
As soon as I was dressed I felt my way to the door and opened it. The single blue-painted light bulb threw a weird light on to the empty corridor and the deserted stair-head. There was no sound except the intermittent murmur of the planes. I closed the door and went boldly down the stairs. There were two flights, each with its blue light, and then I was in the entrance hall. The light was bright here and a man’s figure lounged by the open doorway where a car was drawn up. I hesitated. But there was no point in skulking in the shadows. I crossed the hall and went quickly out through the door to the accompaniment of a murmured ‘Gute Nachf from the German driver who stood there.
I replied ‘Gute Nacht’, my heart hammering against my ribs. But he made no move to stop me and in a moment the night had swallowed me with its blackness and its murmuring of the wind in the firs. I kept to the road, walking quickly, the sound of the planes on the airfield over my left shoulder, and in a few minutes I came out on to the road which ran from the entrance gates down past the mess to the terminal building. I recognised it at once in the lights of a Volkswagen saloon that went careering past me. I waited until its lights had completely disappeared and then I crossed the road and slipped into the sheltering anonymity of the fir woods.
I had no difficulty getting out of Gatow unobserved. I simply pressed on through the woods, keeping the sound of the airfield at my back. I had occasional glimpses of the lights of buildings and the swift rush of cars’ headlights. The rest was utter blackness with the branches clutching at my bandaged head and roots tripping at my feet. I met no one and in a comparatively short time I was brought up by a wire boundary fence. After that I was in the open with the lights of a lorry showing me the Kladowerdamm and the way to Berlin.