Eagle Day - Robert Muchamore Page 0,58

painted the two side rooms.’my

‘You’re not so bad,’ Maxine said, as she passed him a bowl of vegetable stew and a side plate piled with rabbit meat. ‘I’m talking about PT and Marc.’

Henderson was in a good mood and didn’t want Maxine to bring it down. ‘They’re just lads of a certain age doing what lads of a certain age do,’ he said dismissively. ‘Leave ’em be.’

Maxine thumped Henderson’s stew bowl down so hard that its contents sploshed over the table. ‘I don’t mind helping, Charles. But those two treat me like a servant and the looks on their faces when I ask them to do the simplest thing …’

‘Fine,’ Henderson said, slightly irritably. ‘When they get home I’ll have a word about them showing you more respect and doing their chores properly. If that doesn’t work out I’ll give them both a thrashing.’

Maxine shook her head. ‘Violence isn’t the answer to , Charles.’everything

Henderson raised his hands. ‘Fine – I won’t thrash them,’ he said. ‘But words will only take you so far when you’re dealing with boys that age, so don’t go expecting miracles.’

By this time Paul, Rosie, Maxine and Henderson had all settled around the table and started on dinner.

‘Nice rabbit,’ Paul said, as he bit a long strip in half. ‘Tasty herbs.’

‘Thank you.’ Maxine smiled. ‘It’s rosemary. It’s growing like wildfire out back.’

Paul looked at Henderson. ‘Did you see the leaflet they dropped down at the beach?’

‘Yes,’ Henderson replied, as he broke into a laugh. ‘Oberst Ohlsen came back from the demonstration in an absolute state, then spent an hour getting his ear chewed off in the general’s office. The leaflets were getting passed around at headquarters.’

‘What was the reaction?’ Rosie asked.

‘Most people seemed to think it was damned funny,’ Henderson said. ‘The only problem is, they’re suspicious about the leaflet drop taking place while Goering was present. They’re saying British intelligence might have a spy who told them he’d be there.’

Maxine looked concerned. ‘Is that going to create a problem for you?’

‘Not me specifically,’ Henderson answered. ‘The Nazis keep their security tight and even the Oberst didn’t know Goering was going to be there until the general told him on the drive out this morning. But it will ratchet up the tension and make everyone that bit more suspicious from now on.’

‘What about the intelligence gathering?’ Rosie asked. ‘Our transmission window isn’t until eleven tonight, but I can start working on the encoding straight after dinner.’

‘I got into the plan chest while everyone was out,’ Henderson said, smiling. ‘The invasion is set for September sixteenth. I had the map in my possession for a good ten minutes. We won’t get all the information into tonight’s transmission, we’ll have to spread it over two or three nights. Obviously, we send the most important information first.’

‘Have you ever seen any sign in headquarters that they’re out trying to detect radio transmissions?’ Maxine asked.

Henderson shook his head. ‘No, but Abwehr – military intelligence – and the Gestapo both work out of separate buildings to us. They might have crack squads out looking for spies, they might have nothing at all. There’s no way of knowing. All we can do is keep our transmissions short and change locations once in a while.’

*

‘We’ll help you home,’ Marc said, as Dumont leaned on a fence, gasping for breath. The teenager had just been sick and was trembling.

‘Nah,’ Dumont gasped. ‘If my mum knows that I got sick drinking wine she’ll go bananas.’

PT had drunk a whole bottle of wine and regretted it. After all the walking they’d done he was dehydrated and a thumping headache more than cancelled out any pleasant sensation of drunkenness.

‘Why’d you drink wine if you know it makes you sick?’ PT asked.

‘I dunno,’ Dumont said. ‘I thought I might have grown out of it.’

It was just after seven. They were in a lane close to the village and PT had no appetite for the walk home. Marc had barely drunk anything. He was fed up with Dumont and only had an appetite for his dinner.

‘Look,’ Marc said pointedly, ‘I’m hungry, I’m knackered and I’ve got cows to deal with back home. But I don’t want to leave you here, Dumont. At least let us take you down to the village green where someone will help if you get worse.’

Dumont shook his head slowly. ‘Leave me,’ he moaned. ‘Everyone in the village knows me. They’ll get my dad out.’

PT spoke to Marc. ‘We’ve offered to help and we’re not