Dragonfire by Ted Bell

Author:Ted Bell [Bell, Ted]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Action & Adventure, Thrillers, Espionage, Political
ISBN: 9780593101209
Google: 2fLsDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07ZN33RQ8
Goodreads: 48710235
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2020-07-15T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

It was blowing like stink all the way north to England. Stauffenberg sat in the comms room on the bridge just behind Hawke, who manned the helm with Hood at his side. It was the young lieutenant’s pleasant duty to inform Royal Navy Command and the DNI at Whitehall about the success of the mission. Donitz and the two other officers were gone. Like all the dead today, they’d been given burials at sea. Hawke was not so crass as to simply have their corpses heaved overboard. He’d said a few words over each one as the fallen men slipped beneath the waves.

It was done with the utmost respect, which he hoped the Germans would accord to English combatants caught in a similar situation.

Lieutenant Stauffenberg had fared a lot better than young Campbell. His was only a flesh wound, the round hadn’t hit any bone or nicked his lungs. He’d been on the radio for most of the voyage back across the Channel. He’d finally been able to summon the prime minister to the radio so Hawke could personally be the first to deliver the good news.

“I’ve the prime minister on the line for you, sir,” he said to Hawke, poking his head out the door.

Hawke lit up, relinquished the helm, and rushed inside the small comms room.

“Who the bloody hell is this?” he heard his famous relative say.

“Hawke, your nephew, Uncle.”

“You! By God! You boys survived the crash dive, did you?”

“Indeed we did, sir. And I’m happy to say a great deal more.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve got hold of the bloody prize!”

“Indeed, we have, sir. We’ve got a very nice present for you, Uncle Winston,” Hawke told his delighted relative.

“Tell me! I’ve been on pins and needles since daybreak, worrying about you and the lads!” Winston shouted, unable to contain his excitement.

“Bit of piracy on the open seas, I’m afraid, sir. We lost our portside wing on surface impact, but still managed to get out before she sank. The lads and I got fished out of the briny by a big Kriegsmarine minesweeper in mid-Channel. The Tannenberg. That phony-uniform idea of yours did the trick, and we got aboard without a hitch. As soon as they got lazy, we gave ’em hell with the Stens.”

“Atta boy! Hitler will be spitting bullets when he hears about this one!”

“Indeed, he will. There was only one German survivor, a medical orderly who helped me try to save one of my crew—a lad named Campbell, who sadly lost his right foot in the crash dive and didn’t make it. Other than that, and a flesh wound suffered by my copilot, we’re returning in good health, sir.”

“And the three-rotor cypher machine? Intact? They didn’t have time to take an axe to it? And burn the codebooks?”

“Negative. Both well in hand, sir. We’re en route to Plymouth Harbor. Do you want to arrange for someone to come fetch the presents up to you at Bletchley Park?”

“Indeed, I do. I’ll arrange for a nondescript army van with a military escort to be there when you pull into port.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.