Spies in the Garden by Bob Bergin

Author:Bob Bergin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-940821-00-9
Publisher: Banana Tree Press
Published: 2013-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

A great roar jolted Harry out of a sound sleep. An airplane went by his window. He bolted out of his bunk before remembering he was still at Mingaladon. Another airplane roared by. They were taking off. His watch said it was 4:00 a.m. He stumbled to the window and watched a long line of trucks driving by. British trucks with RAF markings. This was not an hour for the Brits to be doing anything. Over the engine noise came the sound of voices, loud, agitated.

“What the hell’s going on?”

No answer for a while, then a shout. “Fucking RAF is pulling out!”

“Can’t be!”

“Fucking is! That’s them there. Leaving!”

“No one said they were going.”

“They’re gone! Look! The Brits are all gone.”

“They wouldn’t pull out without telling us. Even Brits wouldn’t do that.” But the Brits did. Harry got out on the tarmac, out where the AVG had gathered. One of the crew chiefs walked up to Squadron Leader Neale. “They’re gone, all right. The RAF is gone. ‘Dispersing’ they said, to airfields up north. They took everything, all their air-warning equipment. What they called the ‘radar’.”

A crewman nearby said, “That ‘radar’, it never amounted to shit. We never got more than a couple of minutes’ warning from it.” After a pause he said, “But now we’ll get nothing.”

Bob Neale shook his head. “All right, bitching about it isn’t going to help us.” He turned to Frillman. “Get everybody together. We need to start moving.”

Almost all the AVG were already there, so it took Frillman only minutes to round up the strays. Altogether there were maybe two dozen. They stood and looked at Bob Neale. Neale finally nodded at them and started talking. “By now you all know that the Brits have left,” he said. “It puts us in a bad position. Without the British ‘radar’, we’re sitting ducks. The Japs will be on us before we know it. We have to get out of here – as soon as we can. The pilots who still have working airplanes will fly out. Everybody else will go by road. And that means we need to move quickly. The Japs are 20 miles away. They could cut the road anytime. So let’s go! Let’s get the trucks loaded. Frillman here will take the first bunch that’s ready. He’ll take the first convoy.”

Frillman looked at Neale in surprise. “I’m the chaplain,” he said. “I’m not taking any convoy anywhere.”

“Sorry, Padre,” Neale said, “It’s the Old Man’s idea.” He pulled a small sheet of paper from a pocket and pushed it at Frillman. “A radio message from Chennault. We got it this morning.” He looked down at it and read it aloud. “The Old Man says quote: ‘Convoys start this morning. Frillman takes the first one’.” He held the message out to Frillman.

Frillman glanced at it. He shrugged. “The Lord’s Word,” he said, “I guess we go.” He caught Harry’s eye and winked. “Now I know why the Lord put that Buick out in front of me.

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