He squinted at me. ‘Planning on taking a trip, are you?’
‘A ship’s on its way. A ship from Russia.’
It seemed to me quite unfair that we had told him nothing. He might want to come with us, and even if he didn’t, we could hardly leave him without an explanation.
‘Coming tonight, is it?’
‘We think so. There’s room for you if you want to join us.’
He drew heavily on his cigarette, exhaling through his nostrils.
‘Is there, now?’
I felt uncomfortable. ‘I only heard about it myself this morning. Probably no one’s bothered to tell you because they assume you want to stay here.’
‘Being Welsh, as I am, no doubt.’
I couldn’t tell whether he was being sarcastic.
‘I mean it,’ I said. ‘We all appreciate the help you’ve given us here. If you come, I’ll make sure you’re looked after when we get to Russia.’
‘Very generous of you,’ he said drily. ‘Couldn’t go without talking it over with my mam, though, could I?’
I never knew when he was joking. He claimed that his mother lived alone in Trefil, a village to the north of Tredegar, and that he had stayed behind to look after her. We had never been able to confirm this. He came and went as he pleased.
‘Bring her with you if you want to,’ I said.
He looked beyond me at the others. I couldn’t see his eyes under the shadow of his brow.
‘I’ll think about it,’ he said, then turned and went back into the house.
Alex had volunteered to take first watch. I stood with him on the balcony.
‘I’ve told Bevan what’s happening,’ I said.
‘Oh? Do you think that was entirely wise?’
‘It can’t make any difference now, can it? Besides, think of how much we owe him. I’ve offered him a place on the ship if he wants it.’
He said nothing to this. I knew he and Bevan had never liked one another, but the Welshman had done as much as Alex to ensure our continued survival. I doubted he would want to leave his homeland for an uncertain future in Russia.
There was a draggy pain in the small of my back, and when Alex suggested we steal off to our bedroom for half an hour, for once I pleaded tiredness. He was ten years older than I, and we had met at Henley when I was eighteen. At first my father had resisted our involvement because Alex was a divorcé, with a reputation as a womanizer. I had found him irresistible from the start, and his appetite for me remained as strong as ever.
‘Besides,’ I said, seeing his disappointment, ‘we can’t leave the fort unguarded.’
Another pinpoint of light was crossing the sky, winking as it went. The night was utterly still and silent, and I felt that we were naked under the gaze of the heavens. At that moment a terrible sense of foreboding filled me, though I couldn’t explain why.
‘Have you got my cigarettes?’ Alex said.
It was only then I realized that Bevan had taken the whole pack.
It was Alex who shook me awake. Groggy, I sat up and saw the first blue hints of dawn through the window.
‘Is it here?’ I asked.
‘Not yet. But I’d be grateful if you took over the watch.’
‘Have you been up all night?’
He shrugged. ‘I thought I’d let everyone get plenty of rest. It could be a long day today.’
‘Into bed immediately,’ I ordered him.
I dressed and went down to the balcony. The dawn chorus had started, though the valley still lay in darkness. Everyone else apart from Victoria was asleep on sofas and armchairs in the drawing room beyond.
Perhaps the Russian craft had been delayed or even shot down. According to Alex, it would most likely follow a northerly route to avoid Aztec airspace in mainland Europe and England, coming down over the Irish Sea and approaching us from the west. I began to fear that it had never set out in the first place.
I went to the kitchen and put a pot of water on the paraffin stove. The smell of the stove made me feel nauseous, so I returned to the balcony.
And then I saw it.
Far south, down the twilit valley, framed by the rounded black hills, was a point of light.
My immediate instinct was to rouse the others and give them the good news that at last the Russians were coming. But as I stared, the point of light resolved into three – one larger, the other two smaller.
All were golden.
For long moments I did not move. I couldn’t take my eyes off their firefly glow, as gold as the sun.
‘Enemy aircraft!’ I shouted. ‘They’re coming!’
In the drawing room, everyone awoke. There was a brief befuddled panic before Alex appeared and confirmed that they were indeed Aztec craft. He began marshalling us.
I rushed off to rouse Victoria. She was still soundly asleep, naked under the sheets. I shook her awake. Ignoring her protests, I scrambled around the room, finding jeans, a blouse, a sweater.
Alex hastened into the room just as Victoria was struggling into her boots. He was carrying his attaché case.
‘Quickly!’ he told us.
We hurried downstairs and went out through a side door, crossing a potato bed before slipping through a yew hedge. A stone stairway led down and away from the house. We skirted the pine plantation, heading across the lower slopes in the general direction of the colliery.
‘Where are the others?’ I asked.
Alex’s reply was drowned in a searing noise which was followed by an eruption of flame on the lower terraces of the garden. We were bathed in golden light as our attackers completed their first pass.
The two smaller craft were fast-flying, manoeuvrable interceptors with slender fuselages and sickle wings. Their larger companion had a pointed nose and high swept-back wings which made it resemble an enormous golden bird of prey: it was a gunship transporter, its hold typically crammed with troops who would spew out to occupy positions softened up by the craft’s firepower. All three shone brilliant gold in the gathering dawn.
Alex crouched and opened his briefcase. He took out the computer disk and thrust it at me.
I stood frozen, staring at it.
‘Take it!’ he insisted. ‘I’m going back for the others.’
He closed the briefcase and flung it away from him, sending it spinning through the air.
‘Alex—’
‘The codeword’s axolotl.’ He repeated the word, then forced a grin. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be back. Head for the bathhouse. I’ll find you there as soon as I can. Now get clear of here!’
Banking sharply, and utterly silently, the interceptors came in again. Plumes of liquid fire spurted from their noses, plummeting down to burst on the ground, setting clumps of gorse ablaze and throwing the skeletal framework of the tower into stark relief. Alex was already blotted from view by the smoke.
I slipped the disk into a pocket of my jacket. Keeping Victoria close to me, I led her down the mountain path towards the bathhouse, a squat building which stood on the lower flank of the valley. The air was thick with smoke and the petroleum smell of xiuhatl liquid incendiary.
We skirted the colliery, and I kept glancing back with each explosion. The gunship hovered at a distance while the interceptors swept in, spreading fire and mayhem. The house was still intact, and now the small craft paused in their attacks while the gunship descended until it hung no more than a hundred yards above the house.
White light from the belly of the ship bathed the entire area.
‘You will surrender immediately. No further attacks will be made. You will surrender immediately.’
The amplified message came from the gunship. It was repeated. I pulled Victoria down behind a low wall, searching the hillsides with my eyes for some sign of Alex and the others.