“That will be our target,” Megan said. “You won’t all be involved. I will keep the details secret to protect the raiding group. But everyone can play their part. The preparation begins today.”
The watchers applauded, and some pushed out into the cooler air.
Susie loitered back in the tent, edging her way through to David and Megan.
“I want to volunteer,” she said as she got to the front.
“So does everyone,” David replied.
Megan looked across at her. “Who are you? I don’t know you.”
“This is Susie,” said David. “She’s alright.”
“I’m small. I can fit through small windows.”
Megan appraised her again and nodded before going back to the keen volunteers in front of her.
Susie put her hand on David’s arm. “This is the only reason I’m here. I think I’ve made that clear.”
“I know.”
MILLIE FUMBLED with the buttons on his suit shirt. He looked at himself in the mirror and practised holding in his stomach. It was the best way to avoid Georgina proposing a new fitness regime.
Georgina called from downstairs. “Come on!”
He was grateful it was a cocktail party, for which civilian suits were the dress order; it would have taken him even longer to squeeze into his mess kit.
He brushed the shoulders of his jacket and paused in front of the mirror. Since leaving Oxford, he’d been asking himself if he was doing the right thing. Wondering if there was another way, an official way, that would circumvent Mark Kilton, ensure the safety of future aircrew and not land him in prison.
The reflection staring back at him had no answers.
“Millie!”
He headed downstairs.
Georgina stood in front of the door, car keys in hand.
“Well?” she said.
“Well, what?”
“Millie! My frock.”
He looked at her dress. It was black velvet with transparent sleeves. New. She must have bought it in Salisbury.
“It’s lovely, dear.”
AT THE MAYS’, Millie got out so he could greet them properly. Mary emerged first; she looked beautiful in her red dress, but Millie thought better of mentioning it.
Mary galloped up and kissed Millie on the cheek, with Rob just behind her, grinning.
“Roberto! How was the shopping expedition?”
They shook hands.
“Delightful, naturally. You must let me know your secret for getting out of it.”
They climbed into the car. Millie glanced across at Rob in the passenger seat. “Sorry I wasn’t there to help you through what must have been a difficult afternoon.”
Rob laughed. “I won’t say you weren’t missed. Anyway, how is Charlie?”
“He’s very well, very well.”
He heaved the heavy vehicle around the final bend, onto the straight that ran up to the main gate, and immediately had to brake hard.
A line of stationary cars ran along the main road.
Millie craned his neck to try and get a better view of what was happening. A car door was open at the front of the line. Had there been an accident?
He spotted two uniformed security officers, one of them leaning into a vehicle. The driver—an RAF colleague in his suit—was out, standing on the grass next to the road.
The officers appeared to be searching his car.
The tapes were still under the passenger seat.
A prickly heat rose up Millie’s body and his hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“Is this about the new fence?” Mary asked.
“Looks like it,” said Rob. “Security chaps have upped their game.”
He turned to the women on the back seat.
“This gives me time to debrief you on your dress selection procedure.”
They laughed.
“It’s a very inefficient process, if I may observe.”
“Oh, is it, Mr Dress Expert?” said Mary.
“Yes. You see, I watched you put on that dress, Mary. I made a note of the time. 11.02AM. I think it was the second dress you tried on. Do you know what you said when you tried it?”
The car crawled further forward. Millie could see more clearly now; the officers were opening boots and back doors. One man had a torch.
He could grab the cardboard sleeves containing the tapes and throw them into the bushes. But how could he? How would he explain it?
“I didn’t know you paid that much attention, husband,” said Mary.
Millie glanced at his rear-view mirror: smiles and laughing faces on the back seat.
“I was paying very close attention,” said Rob, “mainly because I didn’t have my partner in crime here to distract me.”
Millie tried to smile, but his heart was pounding.
They crept forward again. The security men were now three cars ahead.
Millie’s eyes urgently scanned the scene. How hard were they looking?
If they found the reels, they would arrest him.
In front of everyone.
He cursed his stupidity at leaving them under the seat. He’d simply forgotten.
“You said…” Rob waved his finger at the two women, who seemed to be enjoying the inquisition. “You said, ‘this is perfect’.” He shouted the word again. “Perfect.”
A gap appeared as the car in front moved forward.
He could pull out and drive home.
He could claim he’d forgotten something.
“And yet… you then tried on five more dresses. Five. Before, guess what? You bought the one you had tried on at 11.02. Two hours earlier. Because, and I quote, it was ‘perfect’.”
The car in front stopped; the gap wasn’t big enough to get out cleanly. Millie willed it to move on, to give him space.
“Of course,” said Georgina. “She tried on five more dresses. It’s an essential part of the process.”
“Is it?” said Rob, with more than a hint of doubt in his voice.
The vehicle in front was on the move again, but just as Millie prepared to pull out, a security man appeared and walked directly toward them.
He felt his hands become slippery with sweat on the steering wheel.
Rob settled down from his goading of the woman and put on a more serious expression.
“Here comes the plod. I do hope you two paid for those dresses.”
The officer leaned down and motioned for Millie to open the window.
“Good evening. We need to search the car, please. Can you open the boot?”
The women stifled giggles in the back.
Millie could barely breathe. He nodded, afraid to talk in case it came out as a croak.
He opened the door and stepped out, glancing back at the bottom of the passenger seat, where Rob sat inches away from stolen Top Secret information.
As Millie got to the boot, he realised he didn’t have the keys and went back to the driver’s door.
His hand shook as he reached in to the ignition.
“You OK, Millie?” asked Rob.
“Yes,” he replied, his voice just about holding.
He opened the boot and the security man looked in at the spare tyre, jack and rusty foot-pump, before walking around to the far side of the Rover.
The man arrived at Millie’s open driver’s door, glancing back at the long queue of traffic caused by the delays. He leant in to the car, where the women were still giggling.
Millie took a step closer as the officer reached in and retrieved something from between the two seats.
Millie froze as the officer backed out and turned the object over in his hands.
It was Millie’s tatty AA road atlas.