Air Bridge Part 19

She snuggled down into the bedclothes. I had got to my feet and for a moment I stood there, hesitating, staring down at her. It seemed to me there were two Elses - the girl who excited me and was sweet and gentle, and the German who was revengeful and who would stop at nothing to do what she thought was right for her country and her father. 'Goodnight.' I turned heavily away and blew the lamp out.

In the heavy curtained darkness of the room I undressed to my underclothes and curled myself up on the couch under the blankets. It was bitterly cold in that room. It ate right into my bones. But then I thought of Tubby alone out there in that German farmhouse, desperately hurt, and the cold didn't seem so bad. I prayed that Else would find some means of getting me there so that I could bring him back, so that I could prove that what I had said was true.

Neither the cold nor the constant racket of the airlift overhead kept me awake for long. I slept and in a moment it seemed the lamp was lit again and the old woman was in the room, talking to Else. I turned over and opened my eyes. Else was already up, brus.h.i.+ng her hair. The old woman was standing by the door, a spluttering candle in her hand. 'I hope you are not too cold, Herr Fraser?' she said in German. It may have been my fancy but I thought her gnarled features had an expression of contempt as she said something very rapidly to Else.

'What did she say?' I asked as the bundle of old clothes disappeared through the door.

Else was giggling to herself. 'Nothing,' she said.

'She made some crack,' I said.

'You really wish to know?' She was smiling. 'She say you are not much like our boys, that if you are typical English then she do not understand how you win the war. Did you sleep well?'

'I slept all right,' I said curtly, wondering why the h.e.l.l I hadn't shared Else's bed since that was apparently what had been expected of me.

'You were not cold?'

'It didn't stop me sleeping.'

'Now you are sulking. You do not want to pay any attention to Anna. She is old-fas.h.i.+oned, that is all. Now, please will you turn the other way. I have to wash.'

I turned over and faced the heavy curtains that covered the window. 'What time is it?' I asked.

'A quarter past five.'

'Good G.o.d!' I lay there feeling the cold numbing my body, thinking how tough Else must be. The room was icy and I could hear her splas.h.i.+ng about with the water. 'Is that hot water?' I asked, thinking I would feel a lot better if I could have a shave.

'Of course not. We cannot heat water. Our fuel is for cooking only. If you stay here long you will get used to it.'

'Stay here long?' The problem of the future suddenly faced me. I was a fugitive in Berlin. I could not go back to my own people, not until Tubby was out of the Russian Zone. 'You must find some transport going to Hollmind tonight,' I said urgently. 'If I don't get him out soon he may' Without thinking I had turned towards her and then the future and Tubby were driven out of my mind by the sight of Else leaning over the basin was.h.i.+ng herself. She was naked to the waist, and her firm b.r.e.a.s.t.s looked big and warm in the soft lamplight.

She turned her head, conscious of my stillness, and for a moment her hands were still, holding the flannel, as she met my gaze. Water ran from her neck down her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and poured from her nipples into the basin. 'I thought I told you to turn the other way?' She laughed. It was an unselfconscious laugh. 'Do not stare at me as though you were hungry. Have you never seen a girl was.h.i.+ng herself before?' She dipped the flannel into the water and began was.h.i.+ng the soap from her face. It might have been the most natural thing in the world for her to have a man in her room watching her as she washed.

'Has this happened before?' I asked thickly.

'What?' Her words were half-obscured by the flannel.

'I didn't mean that,' I said quickly and turned to face the curtains again, the sight of her still a vivid picture on the retina of my brain.

She came and stood over me. I didn't hear her come across the room, for her feet were bare. I just sensed her standing there, looking down at me. Her fingers touched my hair.

'Sometimes I think you are very young, Neil. You do not know much about life. Or perhaps it is because we live among the ruins and when you do that you have not many conventions left. Life is very primitive in Berlin - like when we are in a yacht or up in the mountains.' She turned away with a little sigh. 'You would have liked it here in Germany before the war.'

She was dressed by the time the old woman brought breakfast up. 'It is not much,' Else said, as she handed me a plate of dark bread with a small piece of b.u.t.ter. 'But you will become accustomed to that if you stay here long.'

I hardly recognised her as the same person. She wore no make-up and she was padded out underneath a dirty raincoat so that she had no shape. Only her hair looked the same, golden silk fa the soft glow of the lamp.

At ten to six she pulled on an old brown beret. 'Now I must go to catch the truck in the Kurfurstendamm. I think it is best if you do not go out. You have no papers and your shoes do not go with your Wehrmacht coat. Our police are very suspicious.' I held the door open for her, huddled against the cold in my borrowed greatcoat. 'Do not worry. I will find some way to get your friend out.'

I touched her hand. It was very cold. 'Thank you,' I said. 'You've been very kind and understanding.'

'I am not being kind,' she said almost sharply. 'I am doing this for myself. I would like to say differently, but' She stared at me, her eyes very wide and troubled-looking. 'But it is the truth.' Her hand tightened on mine. 'One thing I wish you to know, however, I am glad it is something you want also. I am glad we both want this.' She said it quite fiercely as though she were angry with herself for what had gone before. Then she reached up and kissed me, pressing her lips to mine as though this alliance were something she had wanted badly. 'Do not worry. I fix something.'

'For tonight?' I asked.

'I hope so.'

She smiled and slipped out through the door. 'Do not go out - please.' Her footsteps sounded, quick and light on the stairs, disappearing into the dark vault of the house. I heard the front door open and close. Then there was silence and I shut the door and went back into the lamplit room that was so full of the girl who had just left me.

For some time I wandered round it, conscious of the alien heaviness of the furniture, of the photographs and particularly of her things that lay strewn about -clothes, books, sewing, an empty silver cigarette box, hair brushes, was.h.i.+ng things, old papers, the tumbled bedclothes, her nightdress and the slippers she'd worn, all the litter of things that were Else when she herself was not there.

It was the photographs that I returned to. They were mostly of a big man with a short pointed beard and a high, domed forehead curving back to a mane of white hair. It was her father and the quiet, serious features with the slight droop at the corners of the mouth, the rather blunt nose and the lines of thought that furrowed the broad forehead reminded me of Else when she was puzzled by something. There was the suggestion of a twinkle in the lines at the corners of the eyes. But the face had none of Else's fierceness and pa.s.sion. That she had got from her mother. Professor Meyer was a deeper, more thoughtful person than his daughter. This was particularly noticeable in the photographs of the two of them together. These were holiday snaps taken whilst climbing or on skis. But though the photographs showed her faults more clearly, I was glad of the opportunity to study her father. It explained so much of her that had puzzled me and I could understand more clearly her pa.s.sionate loyalty to the work that she and this old man who was now dead had done together.

Very conscious of Else's presence in that room I returned to the couch and for a long time lay huddled under the blankets thinking about her and the peculiar relations.h.i.+p that was developing between the two of us. I tried to a.n.a.lyse my feelings, but I couldn't and in the end I went to sleep.

I didn't get up until past midday. The sky was overcast, the battered buildings opposite black in the bitter cold. Overhead the airlift planes droned steadily, but I could not see them. The old woman brought me some food - bread and some soup that was chiefly potatoes. She didn't attempt to talk to me. There was a barrier between us that was something more than a question of race. I found the answer in an old photograph alb.u.m tucked away in a bookshelf, a picture of a little girl and an attractive, middle-aged nurse; underneath was written in an awkward, childish hand - Ich und Anna. By five o'clock the light was fading and I could no longer decipher the unaccustomed German print of the book I was reading. I began to pace the room, wondering whether Else would have found transport to take me into the Russian Zone. My mood was a queer mixture of impatience and fear. It was bitterly cold.

Just after six I heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs. I checked in my pacing and listened. This wasn't the clumsy sound of wooden clogs on bare boards. It was a man's tread and he wore shoes. He didn't belong to the building.

The footsteps stopped on the landing outside and the old woman's clogs shuffled to the bedroom door. 'I do not know why she is not back already,' she said in German. 'But you can wait for her in her room.'

'Will she be long?' the man asked. His German was too lazy, too soft. In a panic I looked round for some place to conceal myself. But I was still standing in the middle of the room when the door opened.

'She always return at five. I do not know what has happened.' There was a knock at the door and the old woman opened it without waiting for permission. 'The gentleman here speaks your language. Perhaps you can talk to him while you are waiting for Fraulein Meyer.'

I had backed away towards the window. The old woman stood aside and Else's visitor came in. I saw his brown boots and the olive khaki of his trousers - an American. And then I looked at his face. 'Good G.o.d!' I exclaimed. It was Harry Culyer - Diana's brother. 'How did you know where I was?'

He stopped, staring at me. 'What makes you think I did, Fraser?'

'Didn't Diana send you?' I asked.

'Diana? No, of course not.'

'Why are you here then?'

'I might ask you the same question.' His gaze travelled quickly over the room, missing nothing and finally coming to rest on the Wehrmacht greatcoat I was wearing. 'So this is where you're hiding up. They told me at Gatow you'd disappeared from the sick bay.'

'You've been to the airport - today?'

He nodded. 'I've just come from there.'

'Did you see Diana?'

'Yes. Why?'

'She knows the truth now, doesn't she?' There was a puzzled frown on his face and I added quickly, 'She knows Tubby is alive now. She knows that, doesn't she?' My hands were sweating and I was almost trembling as I put the question.

'Alive? You know as well as I do he's dead.' He was leaning slightly forward, and his grey eyes were no longer friendly. 'So it's true what they told me about you.'

'What did they tell you?'

'Oh, just that you were a sick man. That's all.' He had thrown his hat on to the couch and he lowered his long body down beside it. 'When will the Meyer girl be back? I guess I must just have missed her at the airport.'

'I don't know,' I said. 'Did you see Pierce or the 1.0.?'

'Yes, I saw them both.' He eyed me watchfully as though I was a strange dog that he was not quite sure of.

'I sent Pierce a report - a written report. Did he mention it?'

'No, he said nothing about a report.'

'Did he mention me at all?'

He lifted his eyes to my face. 'Suppose you stop asking questions, Fraser?' His tone was abrupt, almost angry.

'But I must know,' I said. 'I must know what he said about me.'

'All right - if you want to know - he said you were - ill.' He was watching me closely as he said this, like a doctor examining a patient for reaction.

I slumped down on to the farther end of the couch. 'So he doesn't believe it even when he sees it in writing.' I felt suddenly very weary. It would be so much easier just to say no more, give myself up and go back to England to stand trial. 'I must get Tubby out,' I murmured. 'I must get him out.' I was speaking to bolster my determination, but of course he stared at me as though I was mad. 'You're waiting to see Else, are you?' I asked, and when he gave an abrupt nod, I added, 'Well, since you've nothing to do whilst you wait you may as well hear what happened that night in the corridor. I'd like to know whether you believe me.'

'Why don't you rest?' he suggested impatiently. 'You look just about all in.'

'Can I have a cigarette? I've finished all mine.'

He tossed me a packet. 'You can keep those.'

'Thanks.' I lit one. 'Just because you've been told I'm ill, it doesn't mean I can't remember what happened. The chief thing for you to know is this: Tubby is alive. And but for that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Saeton he'd be here in Berlin now. It's a pity your sister can't recognise the truth when she hears it.'

I had his interest then and I went straight on to tell him the whole thing.

I was just finis.h.i.+ng when footsteps sounded on the stairs outside - Else's footsteps. She looked d.a.m.nably tired as she pushed open the door. 'I've done it, Neil. We' She stopped as she saw Culyer. 'I'm so sorry, Mr Culyer. Have you been waiting long?'

'It hasn't been long,' Culyer answered, rising to his feet. 'I've been talking to Fraser here - or rather, he's been talking to me.'

Else glanced quickly from one to the other of us. 'You know each other?'

'We met the other day - out at Gatow,' Culyer answered. 'I tried to catch you at the airport, Miss Meyer, but I guess you'd just gone.' He glanced awkwardly at me. 'Can we go somewhere and talk?' he asked hen Else spread her hands in a quick gesture of despair. 'I am afraid this is the only room I have. You will not mind, Neil, if we talk about our own business for a moment, will you?'

She turned to Culyer. 'Have the British agreed? Shall I be permitted to go to Frankfurt?'

Culyer glanced hesitantly at me. Then he said, 'Yes, everything's fixed, Miss Meyer. As soon as your papers come through we'll fly you down to Frankfurt and then you can join Professor Hinkmann of the Rauch Motoren and get to work right away. Of course,' he added, 'you must realise Saeton is a jump or two ahead of us. His engines are flying right now.'

'Of course,' Else said. 'What about patents?'

'That is still undecided,' Culyer answered. 'We're pressing hard for refusal of patent on the grounds that it's largely your father's work. Mind you, Saeton's developed them to the flying stage, but I think our case may be strong enough for the whole thing to be left to sort itself out in open compet.i.tion. Anyway, what I wanted to tell you was that the British have agreed for you to come to Frankfurt. I thought you'd want to know that right away.'

'Thank you - yes.' She hesitated and then asked, 'No questions about the papers I had in England?'

'No questions. They'll forget about that.'

Else turned and pulled off her beret. She stood for a moment staring at the large photograph of her father that stood above the huge oak tallboy. 'He would have been glad about this.' She suddenly swung round to Culyer again. 'It was Saeton who informed the British security officials about my papers, wasn't it?'

Culyer shrugged his shoulders. 'I don't think we need concern ourselves with that, Miss Meyer.'

'No, perhaps it is not important.' She turned to me. 'Saeton has requested the permission of the station commander to fly a plane to Hollmind.'

'To Hollmind?' I stared at her, hardly able to believe my ears. 'When?'

Tonight.'

'Are you certain?' I asked urgently. 'How do you know?'

She smiled. 'I have friends at Gatow - a young officer of the R.A.S.C. tell me. Saeton is flying there tonight, just to make certain.'

For a second I was filled with relief. Saeton had realised he had been inhuman. He was going to get Tubby out. And then Else's choice of words thrust themselves into my mind. Just to make certain. In an instant the monster I had built of Saeton was there again in my mind. 'Just to make certain,' I heard myself say aloud. 'My G.o.d! It can't be that. It can't be.'

'What's that you say?' Culyer asked uneasily.

But I was looking at Else, wondering whether she knew what was in my mind. 'It must be tonight,' I said.

'What must be tonight?' Culyer asked.

'Nothing,' Else said quickly. 'Please, Mr Culyer. I am very tired and I have some things to do.'

He looked uncertainly from one to the other of us and then picked up his hat. 'Okay, Miss Meyer. I'll be getting along then. As soon as the formalities are through I'll contact you.'

'Thank you.' She held the door open for him.

He hesitated on the threshold and his gaze swung back to me. He was obviously puzzled.

Else touched his arm. 'You will not say anything -about Mr Eraser. Please.'

He shrugged his shoulders. 'I guess it's none of my business anyway.'

But it was his business. He was Diana's brother. 'Will you be seeing your sister again?' I asked him.

He nodded. 'I'm going out to Gatow right now.'

'Will you give her a message? Will you tell her Tubby will be all right - that it's true what I said in that report, every word of it?'

He glanced across at Else. 'Do you know about this?'

Else nodded.

'And do you believe him? Do you believe Carter is still alive, the way he says he is?'

'Of course,' Else said.