Where Eagles Dare Part 20

That's now. I have my bearings. First left, down the stairs, third left. The gold drawing-room. Where Colonel Kramer holds court. Complete with minstrels' gallery.'

'What's a minstrels' gallery?' Schaffer enquired.

'A gallery for minstrels. Then the next right-hander takes us to the east wing. Down again, second left. Telephone exchange.'

'Why there?' Schaffer asked. 'We've already cut the lines.'

"Not the ones between here and the barracks, we haven't. Want them to whistle up a regiment of Alpenkorps?' He turned to Mary. 'Helicopter still here?'

'It was when I arrived.'

'The helicopter?' Schaffer showed his puzzlement. 'What gives with the whirlybird, then?'

"This gives with the whirlybird. They could use it either to whip Carnaby out of here -- they might just be nervous if they think we're on the loose -- or they might use it to block our getaway.'

'If we get away.'

There's that. How are you on immobilising helicopters, Lieutenant Schaffer? Your report states that you were an up-and-coming racing driver and a very competent mechanic before they sc.r.a.ped the bottom of the barrel and dragged you in.'

'I volunteered,' Schaffer said with dignity. 'About the competence, I dunno. But give me a four-pound hammer and I'll sure as little fishes immobilise anything from a bulldozer to a bicycle.'

'And without the four-pounder? This is not a boiler-makers' convention.'

'I have been known to use finesse.'

Smith said to Mary: 'How can we get a sight of this machine?'

'Just five paces that way.' She pointed to the door. 'Every pa.s.sage window in the Schloss Adler opens on to the courtyard.'

Smith opened the door, glanced up and down the pa.s.sage and crossed to an opposite window. Schaffer was by his side.

The comings and goings of the moon made no difference to the state of illumination in the Schloss Adler courtyard. Two big overhead arc lamps burned by the heavily-barred entrance gates. A third burned at the opposite end of the courtyard, over the main doorway leading into the castle itself. At a height of about ten feet, four waterproof storm lamps were fastened to the east and west walls of the courtyard. Lights burned from a dozen windows on the east and northern sides. And the brightest light of all came from an arc-lamp that had been rigged above the helicopter and under the temporary protection of a stretched tarpaulin. A figure in green overalls and a high-peaked cap was working on the helicopter's engine. Smith touched Schaffer's arm and they moved back into the room where Mary was waiting, closing the door behind them.

'Seems a straightforward operation,' Schaffer said. 'Fixing it so that the chopper doesn't fly again, I mean. I cross to the main gates, overpower the four men on guard, strangle the four Dobermann pinchers, knock off two or three other characters -- armed characters -- who appear to be patrolling the place all the time, overpower about twenty soldiers who appear to be drinking beer in some sort of canteen across the way, dispose of the guy who's working on the engine and then immobilise the chopper. I mean, just immobilising the chopper itself wouldn't be anything, really, would it?'

'We'll think of something,' Smith said soothingly.

'I'll bet you think of something,' Schaffer said moodily. 'That's what- I'm afraid of.'

'Time's a-wasting. We won't be needing those any more.'

Smith folded the plan, handed it to Mary, then frowned as she put it in her bag. 'You know better than that. The Lilliput: it should be on your person, not in the bag. Here.' He handed her the Mauser he'd taken from Colonel Weissner. 'This in your bag. Hide the Lilliput on you.'

'When I get to my room I will,' she said primly.

'All those leering Yankee lieutenants around,' Schaffer said sadly. 'Thank heavens I'm a changed man.'

'His mind is set on higher things,' Smith explained. He glanced at his watch. 'Give us thirty minutes.'

They slipped cautiously through the doorway then strode briskly and confidently along the pa.s.sage, making no attempt to conceal their presence. The bag with the Schmeissers, rope, grenades and explosives Smith swung carelessly from one hand. They pa.s.sed a bespectacled soldier carrying a sheaf of papers and a girl carrying a laden tray, neither of whom paid any attention to them. They turned right at the end of the pa.s.sage, reached a circular flight of stairs and went down three floors until they came to the level of the courtyard. A short broad pa.s.sage, with two doors on either side, took them to the main door leading out to the courtyard..

Smith opened the door and looked out. The scene was very much as Schaffer had feelingly described it, with far too many armed guards and police dogs around for anyone's peace of mind. The overalled mechanic was still at work on the helicopter's engine. Smith quietly closed the door and turned his attention to the nearest right-hand door in the pa.s.sage. It was locked. He said to Schaffer: 'Keep an eye open at the end of , the pa.s.sage there.'

Schaffer went. As soon as he was in position, Smith brought out skeleton keys. The third key fitted and the door, gave under his hand. He signalled Schaffer to return.

With the door closed and locked behind them, they looked around the room, a room faintly but for their purposes adequately lit by the backwash of light s.h.i.+ning through the un-suited window from the courtyard. It was, quite apparently, the fire-fighting H.Q. of the castle. The walls were hung with drums of rolled hoses, asbestos suits, helmets and fire-axes: wheeled handpumps, CO, cylinders and a variety of smaller cylinders for fighting oil and electrical fires took up much of the floor s.p.a.ce.

Ideal,' Smith murmured.

'Couldn't be better,' Schaffer agreed. 'What are you talking about?'

'If we leave anyone in here,' Smith explained, 'he's unlikely to be discovered unless there's an actual outbreak of fire. Agreed? So.' He took Schaffer by the arm and led him to the window. 'The lad working on the chopper there. About your size, wouldn't you say?'

'I wouldn't know,' Schaffer said. 'And if you've got in mind what I think you have in mind, then I don't want to know, either.'

Smith drew the shutters, crossed to the door and switched on the overhead light.

'You got any better ideas?'

'Give me time,' he complained.

'I can't give you what we haven't got. Take your jacket off and keep your Luger lined up on that door. I'll be back in a minute.'

Smith left, closing but not locking the door behind him. He pa.s.sed through the outer doorway, walked a few paces across the courtyard, halted at the base of a set of steps leading up to the helicopter and looked up at the man working above him, a tall rangy man with a thin intelligent face and a lugubrious expression on it. If he'd been working bare-handed with metal tools in that freezing temperature, Smith thought, he'd have had a lugubrious expression on his face, too.

"You the pilot?' Smith asked.

'You wouldn't think so, would you?' the overalled man said bitterly. He laid down a spanner and blew on his hands. 'Back in Tempelhof I have two mechanics for this machine, one a farm-hand from Swabia, the other a blacksmith's a.s.sistant from the Harz. If I want to keep alive I do my own mechanics. What do you want?'

'Not me. Reichsmarschall Rosemeyer. The phone.'

'The Reichsmarschall?' The pilot was puzzled. 'I was speaking to him less than fifteen minutes ago.'

'A call just came through from the Chancellory in Berlin. It seems urgent.' Smith let a slight note of impatience creep into his voice. 'You better hurry. Through the main door there, then the first on the right.'

Smith stood aside as the pilot clambered down, looked casually around him. A guard with a leashed Dobermann was no more than twenty feet away, but paying no attention to them: with his pinched bluish face sunk deep in his upturned collar, his hands thrust down into his great-coat pockets and his frozen breath hanging heavily in the air, he was too busy concentrating on his own miseries to have time to spare for ridiculous suspicions. Smith turned to follow the pilot through the main door, un.o.btrusively unholstering his Luger and gripping it by the barrel.

Smith hadn't intended chopping down the pilot with his gun b.u.t.t but was left with no option. As soon as the pilot had pa.s.sed through the side door and seen Schaffer's Luger pointing at his chest from a distance of four feet his shoulders lifted -- the preliminary, Smith knew, not to violence or resistance but to a shout for help. Schaffer caught him as he pitched forward and lowered him to the floor.

Quickly they unzipped the overall from the unconscious man, bound and gagged him and left him lying in a corner. The overall was hardly a perfect fit for Schaffer, but, then, overalls are rarely a perfect fit for anybody. Schaffer switched the pilot's hat for his own, pulled the peak low over his eyes and left.

Smith switched off the light, unshuttered the window, raised the lower sash and stood, Luger in hand, just far enough back from the window so as not to be seen from outside. Schaffer was already climbing the steps up to the helicopter. The guard was now only feet from the base of the ladder. He'd his hands out of his pockets now and was flailing his arms across his shoulders in an attempt to keep warm.

Thirty seconds later Schaffer climbed down the ladder again, carrying some pieces of equipment in his left hand. He reached the ground, lifted the piece of equipment for a closer inspection, shook his head in disgust, lifted his right hand in a vague half-greeting to the uncaring German guard and headed for the main door again. By the time he reached the fire-fighting room, Smith had the window shuttered again and the light on.

'That was quick,' Smith said approvingly.

'Fear lent him wings, as the saying goes," Schaffer said sourly. 'I'm always quick when I'm nervous. Did you see the size of the teeth in that great slavering monster out there?' He held up the piece of equipment for inspection, dropped it to the floor and brought his heel down on it. 'Distributor cap. I'll bet they haven't another in Bavaria. Not for that engine. And now, I suppose, you want me to go and impersonate the telephone operator.'