Eagle Day - Robert Muchamore Page 0,34

read: SERAPHIM ALIVE, BORDEAUX AREA. BLUEPRINTS LOST AT SEA. PREPARING TO LEAVE VIA SPAIN WITH COMPANIONS BUT WILLING TO ACT UPON ALTERNATIVE INSTRUCTIONS. OUT.

Although the message was just twenty-three words long, it took Henderson more than two minutes to tap out. After waiting several minutes for someone to verify his message and encode a reply, Henderson grabbed a pencil and began jotting down the letters he heard in his earpiece.

Paul watched anxiously as Henderson used a different key phrase to decode them.

‘RAU, McAfferty,’ Henderson said, with obvious delight. ‘She got it!’

‘What’s RAU?’ Paul asked.

‘Received and understood,’ Henderson said, before squeezing Paul gently and reaching out to shake hands. ‘Couldn’t have done it without you. Put it there, little man.’

As Paul shook hands, he looked over Henderson’s shoulder and saw a trio of curious sheep behind him.

‘I hate sheep,’ Paul said seriously. ‘Those beady black eyes just stare at you.’

‘They make a lovely Sunday lunch though,’ Henderson laughed, as he spread out the blanket. ‘It’s two hours until our next transmission window. I’m all set up. You can go back down to the house and get some sleep if you like.’

Just thinking about sleep made Paul yawn, but he’d bonded with Henderson that evening and didn’t want to go. ‘I’ll wait up here in case anything goes wrong with the radio.’

Henderson poured some coffee and studied the sunset for a few moments. They only had a single cup that screwed on top of the flask, and when he turned to ask Paul if he wanted some he saw the boy sprawled over the blanket with his eyes closed. He thought Paul was asleep, but one eye came open as Henderson settled on the blanket beside him.

‘I think PT’s basically a good guy,’ Paul said. ‘Don’t you?’

Henderson sighed deeply. ‘I don’t think he was planning to snitch, but he knows all our business. It’s my fault: I should have been more careful about what was said around PT, but he was getting on so well with Marc, and he’s got a crush on your sister. I never thought he’d try doing a runner like that, not for a second.’

‘don’t kill him,’ Paul said.Please

Henderson rested a hand on Paul’s chest and stared down at the patterned squares on the blanket. ‘I’ve done a lot of bad things in my time,’ Henderson said softly.

‘You can’t avoid them when you work as a spy. I don’t want to kill him, Paul. But the question is, what do we do with PT if I don’t?’

CHAPTER TEN

Nobody slept much in the pink house that night. Rosie was up with the sun and walked a few hundred metres to a batty old neighbour who supplemented her pension by keeping chickens. She thought about stopping by the shed on the way back to give PT more water, but Henderson’s bedroom overlooked the garden and his curtains were already open.

Yellow light streamed through the kitchen windows and Paul sat at the dining table, licking jam off a knife, as she placed the basket of eggs on the countertop.

‘You’ll turn into bread and jam one of these days,’ Rosie said with a smile. ‘How’d it go last night?’

‘Good,’ Paul answered coyly, before tearing another bite from his slice of bread. ‘The radio worked. We got a response.’

‘What time did you get to bed?’

‘It was gone two by the time we’d lugged that blasted set down the hill, but I did doze off for a while between transmissions.’

Rosie was expecting more information. She folded her arms and scowled. ‘Have I got to drag it out of you? What did their message say?’

Paul shook his head, reluctantly. He didn’t like holding things back from his sister, partly out of loyalty and partly because she was inclined to thump him if he pissed her off.

‘Henderson told me not to discuss the message with anyone until he’d dealt with PT.’

Rosie sighed. ‘Well, was the message good news or bad news?’

Paul enjoyed knowing something his sister didn’t. ‘You’re not gonna wheedle it out of me. And it’s not really good or bad. Just interesting.’

‘You want scrambled eggs on toast?’ Rosie asked. ‘Or are you full of bread and jam? You’ve pigged half a jar since yesterday.’

‘Yeah, I could go for some eggs,’ Paul said.

Rosie looked into the basket and tried working out how many eggs she needed to cook. ‘Who else is around?’

‘Marc’s up and about and I heard Henderson running the shower.’

‘Maxine?’

Paul shook his head. ‘She stayed at her own place. I think they had