The Rainbow Affair - McDaniel David - Страница 20

"Solo here."

"Section Two, London. There's to be an airdrop of assorted hardware from Thrush to Rainbow tomorrow night. Sources are unable to establish location. We'll keep you informed. London out."

Napoleon folded his transceiver and replaced it in his pocket with a thoughtful expression. Illya finished clearing up a detail about the house - or more specifically the room - in which he bad met Johnnie Rainbow, and looked up.

"Bad news from home?" Lie asked.

"Not good. The London office got word of a delivery of devilish devices to Johnnie sometime tomorrow night - they don't know when and they don't know where. All they know is it's to be an airdrop."

"Time will be between one and three A.M., the morning of the 19th. The location will probably be in the southern part of England - the terrain is better. The target will probably be near something easily identifiable on radar, but far from major habitation." The old man's voice was calm.

There was silence for several seconds. Illya cut it short with one word: "Stonehenge."

"Quite likely," said Escott.

"Among the papers on Rainbow's desk there were several maps, including one of Stonehenge. It was mostly covered, but I saw the corner with the name. I think it's worth a try."

"So do I." Solo turned to Escott. "I doubt if there will be another train out of here tonight, but we'll leave for wherever Stonehenge is first thing in the morning. Do you have enough data to start formulating a theory?"

"I never theorize. I merely examine, correlate and reason. But I have enough data to begin work. If you could give me a list of the maps you saw on Rainbow's desk it could help."

"I think I can remember most of them. I was mentally recording as much as I could in the short time was there."

"Capital. An excellent habit."

Napoleon interrupted one more time. "What time did you say it would be?"

"Between one and three in the morning. The moon is just past its first quarter, and will set about one A.M. If the airbase is nearby, the drop will arrive shortly after moonset. If they are as far away as France, they may take two hours to make the journey each way."

"But... no later than three?"

Escott sighed. "Dawn comes before five A.M. They would want to be safely back at their base by that time."

"Oh, of course," said Napoleon. "That's really quite elementary."

Escott winced visibly and returned to Illya.

Chapter 10

How the Heel Stone Proved an Achilles Heel, and Napoleon Solo Crossed Salisbury Plain on a Bicycle.

A SLIGHT OVERCAST dimmed the stars, and the moon, as advertised, had disappeared shortly after midnight. The silence of the night was unbroken, and in the faint glow from the sky tall black shapes reared in ancient stillness.

The eldritch sarcens and cromlechs of Stonehenge stood patiently against the night sky, hinting at mysteries older than civilization, waiting for the world to bring them to sunlight again.

Napoleon and Illya sat in moderate comfort in hiding between two great standing stones. They had come with great stealth as soon as darkness was fully upon the face of the land, and had waited many hours since then. About two o'clock they became aware of surreptitious noises, as of several men attempting to move quietly and mostly succeeding. Because of the possibility of the expected aircraft using infrared to locate its target, the U.N.C.L.E. agents did not have similar equipment - an IR floodlight shows up quite as clearly on the enemy's scope as a real one to the naked eye. Illya was quietly regretting the lack of opportunity to return to London and pick up a light-amplifier, which operated undetectably. But at the time, Stonehenge had seemed only the most likely of several possible locations, and the chance of it paying off had not been worth the extra effort, Now it was about to, and they had only minimal gear themselves.

Their job would be to interfere with the airdrop such an extent that they could capture the prize - whatever it was. Casualties or prisoners from the other side didn't matter at this point. It was a simple matter of hijacking the cargo.

Straining their vision across the darkness, Napoleon and Illya watched while a few small pieces of equipment were unpacked and adjusted - apparently signals for the expected aircraft. And shortly before three o'clock it came.

The distant drone of an engine gradually grew to point where the hearing could take conscious notice it, and with a bit of cautious whispering and pointing the two U.N.C.L.E. agents were able to pick it through a break in the clouds.

Across the circle of stone, a light flashed three times, casting deep featureless shadows across the faces of the stones. The plane gave no sign, high above them, as it approached, but continued on its course directly over the monument. Then, just as it passed head, something small and white appeared far below it faintly against the sky. It swayed and grew slowly, drifting towards them. It resolved gradually into a parachute with a crate of some kind swinging beneath it.

It made an audible landing just to the west of the circle, and four men detached themselves from the shadows and ran across the grass towards it.

In seconds they had surrounded the case, which was perhaps three feet on a side. Apparently secure in the belief of solitude, they were caught quite unprepared when a sharp voice out of the darkness said, "All right - hold very still and raise your hands. All of you." At the same moment a powerful battery-operated floodlight pinned them to the spot. The four men stood frozen in their various positions, harshly lit against the blackness of the night.

Then, as though directed by a single control, all four of them leaped away into the darkness in different directions. Napoleon's first shot snapped through the space where one of them had been standing, and an instant later muzzle flashes flickered from the shadows. Illya swept the light across the plain, but no heads were to be seen above the grass. As two slugs whipped past him, he killed the light and dived for cover behind the nearest stone himself.

He wriggled over to Napoleon for a fast conference. In terse whispers, punctuated by occasional gunshots, they worked out a plan of action.

A few seconds later the floodlight appeared again, weaving and bobbing, picking out the hiding men. As the light rose higher and higher from the ground it swung about, bathing the short scrub grass in light. The Rainbow men stayed concealed, as Napoleon's sights traversed the area.

At the same time, Illya, having thrown the cord of the floodlight over the top of a lintle-stone so it dangled in the air, and hauled it up to perhaps twelve feet from the ground, was running silently in the opposite direction. Just beyond the Heel Stone to the east was a road, and just across the road their little two-seater was concealed. While Napoleon kept the opposing team under control, he could zip around among them, pick up the box and remove it.

He whipped the camouflage blanket away, vaulted into the seat and hit the starter. The engine raced, and rear wheels threw clouds of dirt as they tore at the ground for traction. In seconds he was around the end of the fence and bounding over the tussocky grass, his headlights stabbing at the sky and sweeping the ground. The dangling floodlight picked out the crate he was after, and he gunned the engine in second gear, hoping the defenders would be able to keep out of his way.

The car jerked to a halt between the light and the box. Illya leaped out the near side and hoisted the case. Three shots whipped by him, and a short burst from somewhere below the light clipped the tops of the grass blades.