“Oh!” I gave a skrike of a laugh, fear and relief bundled together. “The Limehouse—with the girls. He means Take a room in the hotel where the lassies stay. Not that he wants—that he—not that.”

I couldn’t speak what we all thought he’d meant.

With his mate from Intelligence stranded, maybe the German pilot truly did just want a place to stop the night.

Everybody muttered. Then some cleversticks suggested, “Volunteer McEwen can drive him to Mrs. Campbell’s for the night and bring him back tomorrow.”

“You double-crossing bastards!” I cried.

“Don’t make a fuss, you’ll make it worse,” said Old Flash. “We don’t want to scare him into pulling the ruddy trigger, do we? I’ll check with Intelligence before you go. If it’s orders it ought to be all right.”

Of course I was the driver for RAF Windyedge; this was my job. But—they were all so flipping helpless! “Some heroes you turn out to be,” I sobbed. “You bloody bastards.”

I wriggled my arm up beneath the Jerry pilot’s and gingerly pushed his gun farther away from my head. I sucked in a breath. I hated him like I’d never hated any man before in my life.

“I’ll drive you there,” I told him. My voice quaked. Then, because I knew he didn’t understand, I said very loudly, “A ROOM. THE LIMEHOUSE.” I pointed to myself and mimed driving.

No one tried to keep us from leaving—they were still in a flap worrying he might shoot me.

We waited for the last message. Old Flash nodded as he listened to the beeping stream of dots and dashes. “He’s to give it till tomorrow morning. If Ethan doesn’t turn up, he’s to take off when it gets light, or he’ll be missed back at his own base.”

Flash took off his headset and turned to me. “Your Jerry’s got a code name,” he said. “We’re supposed to call him Odysseus. He’s here for a reason, whatever it is, and I don’t think he’s likely to wreck things for himself by hurting you.” The radio operator gave me a grim wee smile, trying to be encouraging. “You’ll be all right, lass.”

“I’ll take him straight over the cliff if I’m not,” I said through my teeth.

Jamie:

“Well done, still in one piece as always,” Silver said, holding up his ratty box of rosin.

“You’re welcome,” I said.

We were back on the windblown Shetland aerodrome where we’d been based whilst fighting our losing battles for the past two months. My two other crews pulled up safely alongside our Blenheim, and Silver pushed open the hatch above us.