When she went to meet her mother in the school the man with the silver hand seemed to be watching her from every shadow. A small smile played on his thin, cruel lips. The lips seemed to say, ‘We have a secret. Keep it secret.’

On Tuesday 26th March a huge lorry pulled into the drive of Mrs Fletcher’s farm. It carried a folded package as dull as lead. Other lorries brought cables and machines and Aimee watched as a motor pump blew into the package and turned it into a great grey balloon, the shape of a cigar and as large as the barn.

Men hurried to fasten cables to it as a breeze caught the balloon and lifted it a little. ‘I’ve never seen one close up,’ Colette told her daughter. ‘I guess they are going to fly into the air to look down on the enemy... see how close they are and what they’re doing.’

‘We are,’ Captain Ellis said. He’d been standing behind them watching the forty soldiers prepare for the flight. ‘And I’m the one who gets the lucky job of going up with the camera.’

‘I thought the aeroplanes took pictures?’ Mrs Fletcher said.

Captain Ellis shrugged. ‘They do... but the Germans have aircraft too and they try to shoot ours down. It’s dangerous. They have a new airfield beside the Somme. Their best fighter pilots are all there. They are blowing us out of the sky.’

Aimee laughed. ‘But the balloon’s dangerous too. The enemy can shoot down balloons.’

The captain shook his head. ‘Not if we haul it down as soon as we have the photos. I’ve never known the Germans shoot down a single balloon.’ He led the way to a larger wicker basket that hung below the whale-belly balloon. He lifted the girl into the basket. ‘There are two ropes under the gas bag – pull this one and you float down slowly. But pull this one with the red ribbon round it and you drop very quickly. Far too quickly for an enemy fighter to catch you in the air. Red for danger.’

‘Would you like to go up with the captain, Aimee?’ her mother asked. ‘See what it’s like to fly?’

Aimee’s eyes sparkled. ‘More than anything,’ she beamed.

The young soldier climbed into the basket and began to give orders to the ground crew to let them float upwards. As the last rope was ready for untying there came a cry: ‘Stop! Captain Ellis.’

Aimee looked over the edge of the basket and saw Sergeant Grimm waving a sheet of paper in his good hand. He panted as if he’d run from the school. ‘Sorry, sir, General Bruce needs you in the office. It’s urgent.’

Captain Ellis frowned. ‘So is this flight. We need the photos as soon as possible so we can see where to fire our guns.’