I had my own wee mission now—one desperate chance to catch Phyllis as she got out of the plane, before she was able to talk to the lads. The second my feet were on the ground I sprinted for Harry Morrow’s Blenheim, just pulling up behind us.

I had to pause for a moment because I couldn’t keep down the oatmeal any longer. But then I kept on running.

Louisa:

What that gunner said to me felt like a bomb going off in my head, and when Ellen stumbled and was sick, I lost everything too.

Jamie:

Yorkie leaped away from Louisa in horror, checking down his front to make sure she’d missed him.

I grabbed him by the wrist and shoulder of his leather jacket and shook him until I hoped his teeth were rattling in his hard head.

“Stow it, Yorke, you don’t know what’s going on because you’re not supposed to! Are you going to accuse me of spying, too, for calling off the attack? And Tex, for recognizing an SOS? Also, keep your mucky hands off the lasses.”

Yorkie staggered back against the Blenheim’s wing, trying to decide whether it was worth going for me. Ignacy and Derfel watched with intense interest—who’d win this time?

“I get that a jumped-up flyboy doesn’t want to tell a lowly air gunner what’s going on,” Yorkie snarled. “But I don’t get why the hired girl knows.”

Louisa was bent over on the grass beside the rear fuselage of the plane, the back of one hand up over her mouth. Silver dodged around us to kneel beside her with his handkerchief.

“Because she was here when the German agent dropped off the code strings we’re using,” Silver said, looking up at us. “The Windyedge-based ground crew was all here too. Only they’ve been told to shut up about it, so they do.”

Code strings! It sounded deadly important in its magnificent vagueness.

Oh God, Silver was the best mate a body could have. The best.

I took a step back so Yorkie couldn’t use his height against me. “Flying Officer Yorke, I said I’d brief everyone on the ground, and I will,” I said coldly. “But call your commanding officer a ‘jumped-up flyboy’ again and I’ll see to it you’re docked a month’s pay.”

The lads all knew that wasn’t an empty threat.

“Understood.” Yorkie straightened his collar and tie. Almost as an afterthought, he dropped me a contemptuous “Sir.”

Then he stormed off toward the operations hut.

“You handled that as well as could be expected,” Silver said, grinning.

Part 3

CALYPSO

Jamie:

Felix Baer. That was the German pilot’s name.