Eagle Day - Robert Muchamore Page 0,30

to say?’ PT shouted desperately. ‘I did what I did. If you’re gonna shoot me, shoot me, you twisted old buzzard.’

‘You’re lucky you’re not a year or two older,’ Henderson snarled, as PT buried his face in his hands. ‘I’ve killed spies, traitors, soldiers and thieves, but I’ve got this little twinge of conscience telling me it’s wrong to blow a fifteen year old’s brains across this nice old table.’damned

Marc and Rosie exchanged relieved glances. Maxine seemed angry at the way Henderson was behaving, but she concentrated on heating the water to clean up Paul’s arm.

Henderson looked at Paul. ‘Is there any more washing line about?’

Paul nodded. ‘Quite a bit.’

‘OK,’ Henderson said, crouching down so that he was speaking right into PT’s bloody earhole. ‘I’m gonna take you out to the garden shed and truss you up. I’m gonna think about your situation overnight. In the morning I’ll come out and let you know if there’s any circumstance under which I can let you live.’possible

Something seemed to be on PT’s lips, but he didn’t say it.

‘What about food and drink?’ Rosie asked.

‘He’s getting neither,’ Henderson said as he wrenched PT up by the scruff of his shirt and shoved him towards the back door. ‘Little hunger and thirst might make him more cooperative over any questions I decide to ask come morning.’

CHAPTER NINE

Henderson set the broken transmitter on the dining table and unfolded a wiring diagram next to it. Paul offered to help, but Henderson was in a mood after dealing with PT and impatiently told him to clear off.

Paul spent an hour sitting in the living room reading a book about Ancient Greece while Henderson crashed about the dining room, his language getting fouler and fouler.

‘My dad was a salesman for Imperial Wireless,’ Paul said warily, as he stood in the dining-room doorway, studying Henderson’s berry-red face. ‘They had engineers, but my dad would do simple repairs himself, to keep customers happy, and I helped a few times.’

‘If you’re so smart, come look,’ Henderson sighed. ‘You can’t make any more of a hash of this than I am.’

Paul moved towards the huge table. The soldering iron was plugged into the light socket above and the smell of smoke and metal stuck to the air. Henderson had replaced two of the broken valves, but had made a horrible job joining up some damaged wiring.

‘That’s messy,’ Paul said, as he dug his thumbnail under a huge silver blob of solder and picked it away.

‘I didn’t say touch it,’ Henderson growled.

‘You won’t get a good connection if you use that much solder,’ Paul explained, picking more off the end of the loose electrical wire and leaning over to study the wiring diagram. ‘You’ve put it back on the wrong terminal anyway.’

Henderson pushed Paul aside, made a careful study of the diagram and then said, ‘Oh …’

‘You’d have blown all sorts of things if you’d powered up like that,’ Paul said, braving a tiny smile. ‘I built a transmitter two summers ago.’

‘With your dad’s help?’ Henderson asked.

‘Some,’ Paul admitted, as he pulled off another of Henderson’s mis-soldered wires. ‘My dad found a diagram for a simple radio and got me all the parts, but I did the work myself over the summer holidays. Except for a couple of fiddly bits.’really

‘Quite impressive,’ Henderson admitted. ‘You must have only been nine back then.’

‘It’s not that difficult really. As long as you have a wiring diagram and all the right parts. It’s sort of like a jigsaw puzzle, except the end result is more useful than some stupid picture of kittens.’

Henderson watched as Paul lined up the wire with the correct terminal. ‘I’ve only got one good arm, so you hold the wire and solder together and I’ll make the new joint.’

Paul took the hot-tipped soldering iron off its stand, leaned awkwardly over Henderson and fused the wire to the circuit board by melting the end of the solder into a neat metal drip.

‘You need enough to make a strong connection, but use too much,’ Paul explained, as the dot of solder hardened into a strong joint. ‘My dad always said that having little fingers helps.’never

‘I’m sorry I snapped at you before,’ Henderson said. ‘When you asked if you could help, I thought you’d be sitting with your elbows on the table asking me annoying questions. I’m starting to realise that children are capable of a lot more than people give them credit for.’

Paul had felt like an outsider ever since they’d arrived at the house