nice touch. How’d you get hold of it?’
‘Bribed a laundress,’ Tomaszewski explained. ‘So what have you found out so far?’
‘Ahh,’ PT said, as he pointed towards the airfield. ‘Out there on the airfield we’re trainees. But for all we know we’re going to be competing against each other in this exercise.’
The Pole broke into a tense smile, PT gave the same smile back and Rosie went back outside to resume her role as lookout.
‘All I want are our instructions,’ the Pole said. ‘Have you seen any documentation in Polish?’
Paul pointed into the corner of the room. ‘There’s two sets of four bags over there by the window,’ he said. ‘There’s only four of you lot, so it must be one of those.’
Tomaszewski looked happy enough as he crossed the room and opened one of the satchels. ‘Polish,’ he said triumphantly, before ripping a map out of a satchel.
Meantime, Paul and PT had begun swapping some of the broken equipment in their satchels with newer equipment that had been given to the Frenchmen.
Tomaszewski seemed content to take a set of documents and leave, but the kids made him suspicious. ‘Why are you messing around with the packs? Have you touched ours?’
‘Air Vice Marshal Walker hates the idea of us kids working undercover. Look at the crap he’s given us to work with,’ PT explained, as he held up a compass that was so rusty the needle hand was frozen into place.
Tomaszewski smiled. ‘So you boys really are training to work undercover?’
PT had admitted something he shouldn’t have and reacted defensively. ‘Well, did you think we were learning to jump out of aeroplanes so that we could go back to our mommies?’
Tomaszewski pondered for a few seconds, then took a close look at the broken compass. ‘People will be much less suspicious of children,’ Tomaszewski smiled. ‘Used in the right way, you could be valuable. You don’t deserve this sabotage by Walker. But you leave my team’s stuff alone.’
Paul pointed towards the five bags they were stealing from. ‘We’re only taking stuff from the French soldiers.’
Tomaszewski nodded. ‘I don’t know how this exercise of Walker’s works,’ he said. ‘But I hope I don’t end up scrapping with those buggers.’
PT looked up at the Pole and smiled. ‘If they make you nervous, how do you think we feel? Paul here is injured and isn’t coming with us, but Marc and Joel aren’t much bigger than him and Rosie’s only a girl.’
The Pole tucked his documents inside his tunic and reached out formally to shake PT’s hand. ‘Good luck.’
‘Same to you,’ PT smiled. ‘Whatever happens tonight I’m sure it won’t be boring.’
Rosie leaned in the doorway and sounded cross. ‘Will you stop waffling and get on with it,’ she hissed. ‘I told Iris I’d be back with the keys in ten minutes.’
As Tomaszewski headed out, Paul and PT finished swapping the equipment from the Frenchmen’s bags. Walker or one of his assistants might look in a bag and the boys didn’t want to make it too obvious that they’d swapped things over. So they left a lot of tatty stuff on top, but made sure that they had two good compasses, working torches, waterproof maps and at least one good example of every piece of equipment.
PT smacked Paul on the back as they headed out into the cold. ‘We’d never have got far with the junk Walker gave us. You might be staying behind with Takada, but if we pull this off it’ll be down to you as much as anyone.’
Paul appreciated the compliment from the older boy and smiled proudly as they set off back towards their hut. Rosie locked the classroom before jogging off towards the WAAFs. Mercifully, Iris had gone walkabout and Julia didn’t bat an eye as Rosie returned the keys.
‘Did you get a look in the satchels?’ Julia asked, speaking quietly with an accent straight out of a posh country boarding school. She couldn’t have been more different to Iris if she’d tried.
Rosie froze with shock. ‘Satchels?’ she said, trying to sound innocent as she flushed bright red.
‘Whenever Walker arrives there’s someone wants to get in that classroom,’ Julia smiled. ‘Usually we say no, but you seemed like a good sort. A few weeks back we even had a Belgian who claimed to be a count and offered us a cheque for two hundred pounds.’
Rosie laughed. ‘Did you take it?’
‘We told him we only took cash. It’s pretty bleak up here and trainees asking us for keys is one