Operation Kingfisher Read Online Free Page B

face. ‘I know what you mean. I’ll do my best.’
    Outside, Duhamel gestured to them to get into the rear of the van.
    ‘Why can’t we ride up front with you?’ Luke asked.
    ‘Better not. If no one sees you they won’t ask questions, will they.’
    ‘But if they open the van and find us, it will look suspicious.…’
    ‘It’s that or nothing. Are you coming or not?’
    Luke gave his mother a final hug and climbed in and Christine followed. They had a last view of Isabelle waving and biting her lip and then the van doors were slammed and they were left in darkness.

Chapter 3
    A s the van bounced and swayed out onto the road, Luke grumbled, ‘It’s crazy making us hide in here. If we are stopped it’s going to give the game away at once.’
    ‘Duhamel’s a coward,’ his sister responded. ‘He’s in a flat panic and he’s not thinking straight. We’ll just have to hope we’re not stopped.’
    It was an uncomfortable ride, sharing the small space with crates of wine and the fumes from the gazogène burner. They sensed from the change in speed and the smoother ride that the van had turned onto the main highway heading south, but then they came to sudden halt.
    ‘This can’t be Vic-le-Comte,’ Christine said.
    Luke shook his head tensely, knowing that the same thought was in both their minds. The rear doors were flung open. Duhamel stood there.
    ‘Out!’
    ‘Why?’ Luke demanded. ‘What’s wrong?’
    ‘Out!’ the man repeated.
    Unwillingly, they both scrambled out of the van and looked around them. They were not, as they had feared, at a road block. The van was stopped at the side of the road on the hill going down to the River Allier, but their view ahead was blocked.
    ‘What’s the problem?’ Luke made to move round the van to see.
    ‘Stay here!’ Duhamel hissed. ‘There’s a German patrol down by the bridge where the road goes off to Vic. They are checking everyone’s papers. I don’t want them to see you.’
    ‘But it doesn’t matter!’ Christine exclaimed. ‘Our papers are in order. All you have to do is let us ride up front like ordinary passengers and tell the
Boche
that you are giving us a lift. There’s no problem.’
    ‘It’s all very well for you to say that,’ the little man muttered, ‘but I’m not taking the risk. See here. If you walk back a hundred metres, there’s a small path that goes down to the river and a footbridge across. I know, because I lived here when I was a kid. You go that way and you will find you can get back up to the road that goes to Vic-le-Comte, well past the roadblock. I’ll wait for you there.’ He slammed the doors of the van. ‘Go on! Get moving. I can’t hang around all day.’
    Before either of them could argue further he scuttled away and climbed into the driving seat. A second later, the van was moving away downhill.
    Luke and Christine looked at each other helplessly.
    ‘Well, there’s nothing for it. We’ll have to do as he says,’ Luke said. ‘Come on, we’d better not make him wait too long.’
    The path was as Duhamel had described it, and they made their way down through a vineyard to the river bank and across the footbridge. Rain, which had been threatening all day, came on in earnest as they climbed up the far side, making the heavy tweed coats which they both wore heavier still and clogging their feet with mud. They were out of breath when they finally scrambled up the bank onto the lane. For a moment they both stood still, looking to right and left; there was no sign of Duhamel’s van.
    ‘Perhaps he meant further on,’ Christine said.
    They trudged up the road until they could see round the next bend. There was still no sign of the van. Luke put into words what they were both fearing.
    ‘The bastard’s gone and left us.’
    ‘
Cochon
! Lâche
!’ Christine shouted into the distance. ‘I knew we couldn’t trust him. I reckon he always meant to ditch us at the first opportunity.’ A new thought struck her.