Lyle nodded in agreement, and both men got up and moved their way down the train.
Swan was on page 18 of his book when he heard a door slide back and footsteps walk down past his compartment. He raised his head from the book to acknowledge the passengers, noticing that they did not look in his direction.
Swan quickly took their descriptions mentally. One wore a black rain mac over a grey pinstriped suit. The other wore a brown lightweight beige mac overcoat over a black suit. He noticed that neither man had any luggage, not even a briefcase, and thought this strange. His instinct began to make him wonder if he had picked up another tail, but he returned to his book deciding to see what may develop. With the train barely past Watford Junction, there was plenty of time to test his theory.
In The Pentagram office at Brinton Aviation, Frank Maitland poured two bourbons and handed one to Brannigan.
‘I got two other guys on the train watching him, Hallum and Lyle,’ Brannigan assured him. ‘Hallum’s a good man Frank, an ol’ friend of mine from the war.’
Maitland looked at his watch. ‘What time’s your train to London, buddy?’
Brannigan took a sip. ‘I am on the seven twenty and pick up my connection to Carlisle at eight zero-five. I’ll be leaving for Maryport in a few minutes. Do you think you can handle Swan by yourself?’
Maitland leant on the back of his desk. ‘Don’t worry about that Limey son of a bitch, I’ll take care of him okay. Don’t forget your heading to Company Safe House 23 in Battersea Church Road. SW11. Get ya head down for some sleep, and tomorrow you’ll be taken to Farnborough. When you get there, show ya GK card to security, and they will guide you to our display stand. You have a package addressed to you waitin for ya. There’s a cute broad of a secretary named Ava Gorman, who will give it to you. It is a camera and built into it is the remote unit for the detonator. There are three switches on it. All three must light up before the thing can be armed. That indicates that the target is in range. It’s a new toy the Black Op boys have worked on, avoids any suspicious SOBs seeing you hold a box in ya hand. Now are ya sure that the device is in place on the airplane?’
Brannigan nodded. ‘Yippee, sittin pretty in the cockpit. Ready to be activated by the pilot, when she starts up tomorrow.’
Brannigan put on his jacket.
Maitland shook his hand. ‘Good luck, buddy.’
Brannigan smiled and walked out of the office and Maitland sat back down, raising his bourbon filled glass. ‘God bless America,’ he exclaimed, and drank it down in one.
Swan put down his book. The train was just approaching Rugby. He stood up, slid back the door, walked out of the compartment and headed for the restaurant car.
Hallam and Lyle sat at a table in the Pullman carriage. Orange lamps were suspended on stands at intervals on the walls of the immaculate interior.
Swan walked in and was met by a waiter. ‘Table for one, please,’ he requested.
Swan followed the waiter and sat down at the allocated table. He glanced out of the window noticing that the evening lights of Rugby were just coming into view. He gazed for a few moments then lifted the menu book from the table and sifted through the pages, holding it so that he could use it to conduct a typical counter-surveillance maneuver known as corner-eyeing.
As Swan glanced at the menu, he used the top of his eye to view the two gentlemen that he had seen go past his compartment. The technique meant that he never directly stared at them. He noticed that they were in conversation. Travelling businessman? he thought. He decided to monitor the situation, as the waiter returned with a notepad and pen.After taking the order, the waiter turned and walked down the carriage to the kitchen area. Swan opened his book and resumed reading, while waiting for his meal.
Hallum stared past Lyle to watch Swan, who was three tables down directly in front of him. He weighed up his target. He was from the farmlands of Kansas, and knew how to fight. He had become amateur boxing champion at the age of 13, and was set to turn pro at 16, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. Within a year, he found himself in a little hamlet outside Woodbridge in Suffolk, knee deep in Fenland mud, training for combat in Europe.
It was here that he met Jake Brannigan, a young intelligence officer attached to the US Rangers. They became good friends and Brannigan saw that Hallum could be more useful to the US Army as an interrogator. He was later assigned to a special unit of the American OSS, who specialised in interrogation of downed German airmen. Hallum loved his job. It was never known how many prisoners he had gathered important information from, but his methods were brutal and sometimes even fatal. This was of course never known to Allied Command. Only Brannigan had knowledge of the tactics used, and received most of the credit for his accomplishments.
As Hallum discretely eyed Swan from their vantage point, he was hoping that he would get the chance to work on him.
Chapter 19
At Carlisle Station, Brannigan opened the carriage door to the 8.05 to London Euston and climbed aboard. He was one of four passengers in that particular carriage, and sat down at a window seat. He retrieved a copy of the Evening News from his briefcase and read the headlines:
Government in Arms Dilemma
In Primeminister’s question time today, it was revealed that the results of the forthcoming White Paper on defence spending means that most of the ordered equipment will now be sourced from abroad. The cancellation of the Dragoon Battle Tank, the vertical take-off and landing jet fighter and the new military transport aircraft has caused Britain to look elsewhere, culminating in the loss of hundreds of jobs for manufacturers at home.
Some of these companies have had to amalgamate with others to avoid complete closure. The opposition scorned the government for ‘selling this country down the river’. A government back-bencher, later quipped that ‘in this case, as most of the new equipment is coming from the United States, it is rather a case of selling us across the pond.’ The only remaining home-grown project at the moment, and not to directly face the axe, is the Rapier strike aircraft. Although due to rising costs, it is still very much under scrutiny as to whether the project should be cancelled in favour of the American FB- X. The White Paper will officially be published in the house on Thursday this week.
After reading the article, Brannigan gave a satisfied smile. He knew that he was very close to completing his mission and felt pleased that he could serve his country in this way. He recalled Maitland saying to him that there could even be a commendation for him, the highly secret Intelligence Medal of Merit. He sat back and stared out the window, watching the fading evening light silhouette the passing countryside.
Approaching Crewe Station, Waters drove the Deltic through the interlinking tracks, where on either side, different coloured diesel locomotives sat idle on the sidings, some with their connected hordes of empty carriages.
Swan looked out the window of his cabin and viewed the station platform as it appeared. As the train slowed, he watched a porter pushing a blue trolley crate full of postage sacks along the platform. The slight jolt of the carriages indicated that the train had now stopped. This station was where a new locomotive would replace the Deltic, an operation that would take some time, before the train could continue on its journey.
Swan looked at his watch. It was 8.45 pm. He wondered where the two American agents could be lurking at this moment, and decided to have a bit of fun with them. He got up from his seat and pulled back the compartment door, then turned right and walked down the train to the carriage exit. Now, standing in the doorway, he suddenly heard the sound of another door opening a few compartments back from where his was. He waited a few seconds, and then stepped down to the platform.