into its sheath.
‘Vive la France,’ the girl whispered, as Luc grabbed the rope handle of his wheeled canister and set off to catch Paul.
*
Once all the parachutes were rolled up and buried in Marc’s hole, or packed away under bushes, they jogged east on a deserted country track. The four equipment chutes had dropped eight canisters in total, so Henderson and Goldberg had to carry two while the boys had one each.
It was a muggy night and they all dripped sweat by the time they sighted their target: a single railway track, winding up a steep hill. Henderson and Marc spun and cocked guns as something crashed through branches behind them, but when they turned it was a boy with his hands held high.
‘Don’t shoot,’ the scared-looking ten-year-old blurted. ‘The weather has been good, I’m here hunting squirrels.’
Henderson half smiled as he lowered his weapon. It was a prepared phrase: if the boy had said he was hunting rabbits it would have meant that he’d been captured by the Germans and they’d walked into a trap.
‘You must be Justin,’ Henderson said. ‘I thought we were meeting by the tracks.’
‘The coal train went out early tonight and you’re late,’ Justin explained. ‘I climbed up to see if I could spot you.’
‘How long have we got?’ Henderson asked, as Justin shook his hand, then Goldberg’s.
‘Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes if we’re lucky,’ Justin said.
‘Any sign of Germans?’ Luc asked.
Justin shook his head. ‘Been coming out this way for two years. Never seen a German yet, but we’re a good ten minutes’ walk from the track, so we need to shift.’
Paul was struggling with the combination of the cargo canister and the weight of his own gear, so Justin took his backpack as they set off at a jog.
‘In a way it’s good that the train is early,’ Justin explained. ‘If there’s no delays we should get back to my house before daylight.’
The coal train was rumbling somewhere out of sight as they approached the tracks. They’d have to throw the heavy canisters up into the coal wagons and they didn’t want to risk smashing the wheels, so there was a mild panic as everyone knelt at the trackside dismantling them.
Henderson and Luc were tallest, so they stood close to the tracks and jointly lobbed the heaviest aluminium canisters up into the coal wagons as they trundled past at walking pace. There was a phenomenal boom as each one landed in an empty metal skip, but Justin reassured them that the driver and guard never heard anything from their positions at opposite ends of the kilometre-long train.
Marc and Goldberg threw the lighter canisters aboard, apart from the one containing the delicate radio beacon which Henderson strapped to his back. Once everyone had boarded, Justin gathered them into a single coal skip, where he gave a quick lesson on dealing with the swirling coal dust when going through tunnels.
‘It should be obvious when we arrive at the water tower,’ Justin said. ‘But I’ll whistle just in case.’
As the train crested the steep hill and began picking up speed, everyone moved up the train to reunite with their canisters. Marc found himself sharing the dusty skip with two canisters and Paul.
‘You OK?’ Marc asked, as train wheels clattered beneath them.
‘Eyes full of coal dust and my arms hurt from dragging all that stuff, but so far so good, eh?’ Paul said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The train was lit by a purple and orange sunset as it halted. Marc bobbed his head over the end of the coal skip and saw the water tower up by the head of the train.
‘Our stop,’ Marc told Paul, as he gave him a gentle kick.
After a glance either side to make sure there were no guards or railway workers close to the train, Marc put his palms behind his canister, pushed it up the sloping metal side of the skip, and let it drop down into the gravel alongside the tracks.
There were several similar crashes as everyone threw their canisters out, then they climbed the metal access ladders to leave the skips. As Marc crunched down into the trackside, he saw Justin belting towards him from the front of the train.
‘Hurry up,’ he ordered. ‘I was up front when we stopped. There’s two railway cops strolling our way. Get everyone to go down the embankment fast and I’ll try and deal with them.’
Justin sprinted off before Marc got a chance to ask how the untrained ten-year-old planned to fend off two policemen.
‘Is he