Blackbirds Read Online Free

followin’ the RAF rules of engagement, he’d get me killed. One of Hitler’s secret weapons, that one.”
    â€œSkipper’s our secret weapon.”
    â€œHim and O’Malley.”
    Sharon stopped breathing. She closed her eyes to concentrate on the reply.
    â€œBloody magician, that one.”
    â€œBloody-minded Irishman, if you ask me.”
    â€œEver have your guns jam in the middle of a dogfight?”
    Another silence.
    â€œEver have an engine failure?”
    Another silence.
    â€œI thank my lucky stars every day for that bloody-minded Irishman. Talk to the pilots in other squadrons, and they’ll tell ye what it’s like to find yourself in the middle of a mess of Messerschmitt 109s with jammed guns. That does na happen here because O’Malley and Malan will nay have fools workin’ around our Spitfires.”
    There was the sound of a twin-engined aircraft on finals.
    Sharon looked up and spotted a sleek biplane settling onto the grass. She recognized the Dragon Rapide that was to be her ride back.
    â€œYer ride’s here, lassie.”
    She saw a smiling ginger-haired sergeant pilot peering at her through a gap in the tent’s fabric.
    He said, with his no-nonsense Scottish accent, “Keep your wits about ye. There’ll be Germans nearby, and they don’t take the time to find out whether you’re a woman or a man. They’ll kill ye given half a fookin’ chance.”
    â€œSo, you met him?” Linda sat across from Sharon in a pub near White Waltham, where the heavy scent of fermenting beer was almost as thick as the tobacco smoke.
    â€œNo. The pilots were talking about him.” Sharon looked around. Some of the patrons were eating steak and kidney pie, others were smoking, and all were hefting a pint or four. She saw all of this through a haze of smoke. The ceiling was so low, it had nowhere to sit but in front of her face. Her eyelids felt like sandpaper. “Are you finished?”
    Linda chewed the last forkful of her supper.
    Sharon thought, You eat like a man and weigh maybe one hundred and twenty-five pounds. How do you do that ?
    â€œI don’t know. I’ve always had a healthy appetite.” Linda stood. “Let’s talk some more on the way back.”
    Did I say that out loud? She’s reading my mind again. “Fair enough.”
    Outside, Sharon inhaled fresher air. The blackout made the stars brighter. She sniffed her uniform jacket and found it stank of cigarette smoke and sweat.
    â€œNo drinking. No smoking. What kind of Canadian are you?”
    Sharon turned and anger lit her from within. She was greeted with Linda’s smile. The anger was extinguished. “My mother died from the one, and my grandfather abused everyone because of the other. By the way, how do you read my mind?”
    â€œYour face is as easy to read as the morning headlines.” Linda linked her arm through Sharon’s.
    Sharon felt flushed with embarrassment, as well as something unfamiliar, unnamed.
    Linda said, “You know, when I found out who you were, I told my mother, and my father looked into you.”
    â€œWhat is MI 5, anyway?”
    â€œIntelligence. Now, that has to stay between you and me. It’s all so hush-hush, you know.” Linda did not smile.
    â€œReally?”
    Linda pulled Sharon’s elbow and stopped them. “Really. We even have an official secrets act now.”
    â€œDoes that mean that what we talk about stays between us?”
    â€œFrom now on, if you like. I told my mother about you because she took care of Cornelia after your grandfather beat her. They became close again. My mother told Cornelia about you coming to England after the bastard died.”
    â€œHow did he die?” Sharon asked.
    The silence went on for more than a minute. Linda asked, “How did you find out about O’Malley?”
    â€œMy mother told me about him a couple of weeks before she died.