Codename Eagle (24 page)

He moved quickly away into the field. Paul, Didier, Max and Julia waited.

Paul looked at Didier. “I don’t know what to say.”

“No, me neither.”

“But…”

“Yes?”

Paul shook his head. He reached for the letter in his pocket and took it out.

The drone of the single engine grew louder as the Lysander descended, and suddenly ten strong beams, five on either side, illuminated the grass landing strip.

They caught their first glimpse of the plane as it sank from the sky and passed to its right the ancient walls and turrets of Puivert Castle. The descent looked smooth and steady in the still night air. The Lysander touched down and came bouncing along the landing strip, moving quickly towards them until it came to a brief halt before starting to turn.

And then they were running, racing across the field towards the tiny plane.

Within two minutes the aircraft was climbing back into the sky, leaving Puivert, leaving France, heading first for Spain and then for Portugal.

On the ground, those who remained stood and watched until the plane had disappeared from view and the sound of its engine had faded to silence.

J
osette sat up in her hospital bed, a plasma drip in her arm. She looked pale and tired, but much better than she had a few hours earlier.

It was one-thirty in the morning, but Josette had refused to even attempt to sleep. She was in a single-bedded room, with her father seated on one side of the bed and her mother on the other.

“What time is it now?” Josette said to Henri irritably.

He sighed. “Ten minutes since you asked me last, Josette.”

“But what time is it?”

Henri looked at his watch. “It’s one thirty-two.”

“He’s not coming, is he?”

“Josette, if everything went to plan, by now he’ll be over Spain. Perhaps they’ve even landed to refuel.”

“But he promised he’d come.”

“Something must have happened; Paul would never deliberately break his promise. We can only hope that they’re safe. All of them.”

“Josette, will you please try to sleep for a little while?” Hélène added. “You’re very weak. The doctor said you needed rest.”

“I’m not weak. I’ve never been weak.”

The mood was tense; they were all as anxious as each other.

“Maybe you should go home, Mama,” Josette said. “Perhaps Didier has gone there and is waiting for us.”

Hélène ignored the comment, knowing perfectly well that Didier would come straight to the hospital when and if he could.

They lapsed into an uneasy silence. Josette was just about to ask her father the time yet again, when suddenly they heard footsteps approaching down the long corridor.

Josette looked at Henri.

“It’s the nurse,” Henri said, “come to check on you again.”

Josette shook her head. “It’s not the nurse. She walks faster than that.”

The footsteps came closer. Henri slowly stood up and then Hélène got to her feet too. They all stared at the closed door.

There was a gentle tap.

“Come in!” Josette almost shouted.

The door opened and Didier appeared. He was smiling.

“Oh, Didier,” Josette breathed, “you’re safe.”

Henri clasped his hands together and Hélène crossed herself, looked to the heavens and whispered a few words of thanks.

“Yes, I’m safe,” Didier said, grinning.

“And Paul?” Josette said anxiously. “He’d promised he’d come. Is he all right?”

Didier shrugged his shoulders and Josette and her parents exchanged anxious glances.

“What do you mean, Didier?” Josette demanded. “Is he all right or not?”

Didier smiled again. “You’d better ask him yourself.”

He stood to one side and Paul walked into the room.

“Paul!” Josette screamed. “I knew you’d come, I knew it!”

“Paul,” Henri gasped. “How…?”

Hélène crossed herself again and muttered even more.

“But the plane,” Henri said. “Did it not arrive?”

“Oh, yes, it arrived,” Paul said, smiling. “The Bernards are on the plane. It won’t be a comfortable flight, but there was just about room for two passengers. I hope they like England.”

“The pilot was a bit confused,” Didier added. “He thought he was taking one passenger to Portugal, but we convinced him that Max and Julia were far more important to the British than Paul would ever be.”

“I think he just wanted to get back up into the air as quickly as he could,” Paul said, laughing.

“But your father’s plans,” Henri said, “and everything you have to tell the British…?”

“I wrote it all down in a letter, everything I know. There’s nothing more I can tell them. I gave the letter to Julia just before they got on the plane, so the British don’t need me now.”

“But we do, Paul,” Josette said, her eyes shining. “Is that why you changed your mind?”

“I knew last night, really,” Paul answered with a shrug. “That’s why I wrote the letter. I knew I didn’t want to leave” – he hesitated, blushing slightly – “I didn’t want to leave any of you.”

He sat on the bed close to Josette, then turned to Henri. “And besides, we saw the start of the real Resistance movement in Puivert tonight. There’ll be a lot for us to do in the next few months.”

Fleeing Nazi-occupied Antwerp, where his father has been shot and his mother arrested, Paul Hansen finds himself in a desperate flight through Belgium and France to the Pyrenees, aided by members of the Resistance.

But the deadliest challenge lies ahead. Does Paul have the wits, strength and will to survive the
Eagle Trail?

“Action-packed – a gripping read.”
– Andy McNab

R
obert Rigby is the author of
The Eagle Trail
, as well as the co-author, with Andy McNab, of the best-selling
Boy Soldier
series. His other fiction includes the novelizations of the
Goal!
movies and a stand-alone novel in the series,
Goal: Glory Days
. He is the author of the four official London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic novels for children. Robert also writes for theatre, television and radio, and is a prolific songwriter and composer. He lives in Oxford.

You can visit Robert at
www.robertrigby.co.uk

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury.

First published 2015 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ

Text © 2015 Robert Rigby
Cover image of young man © Getty Images, Inc
Cover images of paratroopers and men in uniform
© 2015 Sergey Kamshylin / Shutterstock.com

The right of Robert Rigby to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-4063-6641-9 (ePub)

www.walker.co.uk