Secret Army - Robert Muchamore Page 0,35
sit and draw this,’ Paul said as he looked at steep hills and birds circling in the clear sky. ‘It’s breathtaking.’
Luc sneered. ‘Breathtakingly crap from where I’m standing. I hate the countryside.’
‘So where are we?’ Rosie asked, as she looked along the deserted platform and then turned a complete three-sixty to take in the scene. ‘Are we supposed to walk?’
‘I think that’s a signpost over there,’ Joel noted. ‘But you can bet that it’s all painted over.’
Their uncertainty ended with the arrival of a squat paratroop sergeant, who emerged between overgrown hedgerows behind the platform and rattled off words like machine-gun fire. ‘Well, that made a nice little bleedin’ pantomime out of getting off the train,’ he said happily. ‘I’m Sergeant Parris, with two Rs. Truck’s parked down the hill. It’s just you lot for now. The Polish idiots missed their connection in Glasgow.’
The kids picked their bags off the platform and crunched down a steep path to an RAF truck with a canvas awning covering the rear. They threw their belongings in before sitting along the wooden benches on either side.
Canvas isn’t a good insulator and frozen air blasted through every gap as the truck belted along a single-track road, with overhanging branches clattering against the side. After winding around the hillside, the land opened into a shallow valley with two concrete runways arranged in an X near the bottom.
A wire fence marked the perimeter of the airfield, there were wooden huts, two large hangars and a windsock catching the gusts blowing over the hills.
‘This is all we’ve got,’ Parris shouted rapidly, as they jumped out of the truck alongside a grim-looking hut. ‘Accommodation is in huts A through G. Admin office in hut H. Latrines hut J, showers K, female staff quarters huts L, M, cookhouse hut N. Classrooms huts O and P, first aid and medical is hut Q.
‘At the very far end you’ll find our hangars, which we call Brahms and Liszt. There’s a map and a training schedule pinned to the door of your hut. I’m not your mother, so I expect you to be at the correct hut at the time stated on the schedule. This field trains operatives for special military operations, the intelligence service and the Special Operations Executive. Careless talk costs lives so do not speak to members of the other training groups.
‘You will eat in your huts and return the trolley to the canteen afterwards. For entertainment you’ll find a draughts board and a Bible standing in the piss pot under each bed. Any questions … ?’
Parris spoke so fast that they’d missed half of what he’d said, but nobody raised a hand.
‘Right then, study your schedules and report for your medical in hut Q at eleven-fifteen.’
The airfield had only been open for a few months and every comfort had been spared in the prefabricated accommodation hut. There was a tiny room for a commanding officer by the entrance. After this came a dozen narrow beds with thin mattresses and frames nailed together from unsanded timber. At the far end were two tables made from the same rough wood and three-legged stools to squat on while you ate.
After dumping bags on their beds everyone crowded around the schedule pinned to the door.
‘Static jump, tomorrow,’ Rosie said, before laughing anxiously. ‘I thought it would just be training on the ground until at least Tuesday.’
Joel patted her on the back. ‘Don’t worry, toots, it’s just jumping out of an aeroplane. Gravity does most of the work for you.’
‘I don’t think a static jump is from a plane,’ Luc pointed out. ‘I think it’s from a tower, or a balloon.’
‘Oh my god,’ Rosie squawked, as she put her hands over her face. ‘I’m going to die.’
‘I’ve never seen you acting so girly,’ Paul told her. ‘You’ll do it easily.’
The wall clock hadn’t been wound up and Takada was the only one with a watch, so he warned the kids that they only had ten minutes to change into the plimsolls and light clothing mentioned on the schedule.
The medical was a routine check-up. The orderly was perplexed to find himself examining kids but his job was to tick boxes on a form not to ask questions.
Marc was first in line and lifted up his vest so that the orderly could listen to his heart. ‘Cough.’
Marc coughed. The orderly read off a long list of medical conditions which Marc hadn’t suffered from and finished off by tearing a two-part form from his pad and handing