The Final Flight

²⁴ THURSDAY 30TH JUNE

The following evening, Rob drove the Healey cross-country through the Winterbournes, a cluster of small villages littered with army buildings.

The Bell Inn was ancient, with a small wooden door, forcing him to duck as he entered.

An old man with a white beard nursed a glass of dark ale at the bar. A golden retriever slept at his feet.

Behind the bar, a short, stout woman regarded Rob over her half-moon glasses.

“What will it be?”

Rob scanned the draught beers.

“A pint of Harp, please.”

A stuffed fish sat in a glass case mounted on the wall above the bearded man. It looked like a pike: long, with nasty-looking teeth.

The landlady gave Rob a pleasant enough smile and lifted a glass down from a hook.

She poured the lager, while the man half-turned to take him in, before reaching down to pat his dog.

“Just you, is it?” the landlady asked.

“I’m expecting a friend.”

“I can run a tab, if you like?”

“Thanks.” He nodded, and she noted the drink on a pad next to the till.

Rob picked up the pint and made his way to a small, round table furthest from the bar. He tucked himself into a corner by the fireplace.

The place smelled of old wood. Brass horseshoes were tacked to the beams and ugly Toby jugs stared out at the empty chairs.

The door opened and the young woman walked in.

She’d undergone a transformation. The black bob of hair was now shoulder-length blonde. She looked smarter, too.

He stood up. She smiled at him, waved and called out.

“Hi!”

The landlady picked up a wine glass, in anticipation of a fresh order. “The gentleman has a bill running, so what would you like?”

“Half a Guinness,” the woman said brightly. The landlady replaced the wine glass and poured the stout into a straight half-pint glass. There was a pause while she let the beer settle before topping it up. Rob remained standing, feeling awkward.

The young woman came over to the table. She looked friendly and confident, as if they met here every Thursday evening. Following years of behaviour training, he let her take her seat before resuming his.

She leant over and kissed him on the cheek.

“How are you?” she said, loud enough for the pub’s other two occupants to hear.

“Fine, thank you.”

Her new hair made a difference, but her clothes changed everything. Gone were the loose fitting tops and scruffy jeans. She now wore a smart, cream blouse and black slacks, and had a shiny new handbag. She looked as if she’d just come from an office job, not the peace camp.

She studied him with clear, green eyes. She had a turned down mouth, dimples in both cheeks.

She hung her handbag on the chair, before crossing her hands on the table.

“How was your day?”

“Fine, thank you.”

She leant in close. “Let’s wait for the background noise to rise a bit.”

His eyes scanned the empty pub.

The door swung open again and three men bustled in wearing boots, wax jackets and ruddy complexions.

They laughed about something, and the landlady greeted them by name. The woman leant forward again.

“Why did you steal Top Secret documents from the military?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You had them in your house.”

“I didn’t steal them.”

“Then why did you have them?”

She kept her serene smile. At a glance, anyone would think they were having a cosy chat about holiday plans.

The three newcomers stood at the bar and tucked into their hard-earned pints, chatting loudly about some adventure with a bailer.

She spoke again. “Georgina Milford gave them to you to hide?”

“No.”

“Then what was the arrangement, Robert?”

He shook his head. “Who are you?”

“Don’t look so worried, it will attract attention.”

“I can’t look like anything else at the moment.”

“Well, being caught with Guiding Light material means jail time. Why risk it?” She spoke with such casualness, but Rob winced at the project name.

“I wanted to return them, but… it’s complicated.”

She leant back and folded her arms, those green eyes constantly assessing him.

“Tell me. I can cope with complicated.”

“Are you with CND?”

She reached to her handbag, unclipped the strap and pulled out a sheet of paper, placing it on the table between them. Rob looked down as she turned it around to face him. He didn’t recognise the handwriting, but the pattern of numbers and equations was familiar.

“These are Millie’s notes?”

“Millie?”

“Milford. Christopher Milford. Everyone called him Millie.”

She nodded. “I copied them out.”

“Where is the original?”

“Safe. Look, Robert—”

“Rob. And everyone calls me Rob.”

She gave a little laugh. “Rob and Millie. You boys. Just like boarding school.”

“I didn’t go to boarding school.”

“I know you didn’t.”

He stared at her. She laughed again. “You can call me Susie.”

“Is that your real name?”

She raised an eyebrow. “What sort of person makes up names?” She tapped the sheet again. “What does it mean?”

Rob studied the notes.

“You don’t know, do you?” she asked, sounding disappointed.

He put a hand on the piece of paper. “I might work something out, but I’ll need to keep it.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know, Rob. You’re a bit of a loose cannon. Pitching up at a peace camp, shouting off to anyone and everyone. I don’t know if I can trust you.”

“You can’t trust me? I have no idea who you are.” He spoke louder than he’d meant to; a few heads turned at the bar.

Susie looked around and turned back to him, laughing. “You’re so funny.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips before slouching back in her seat and taking a sip of her drink.

His heart pounded. She was young and beautiful. He hadn’t kissed another woman since meeting Mary.

She sat up again.

“You see, Rob, I can’t even trust you to keep your voice down. Let’s try to look like a normal, run-of-the-mill couple, so no-one remembers us.”

“Sorry.”

“What’s your next move?” she asked, again with that same smile, as if enquiring about his plans for Saturday night.

“I need the box back, please. That’s why I’m here.”

“And what will you do with it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, that sounds like a solid plan.”

He shrugged.

“OK. So how about I tell you what I know? Your friend Millie found something, didn’t he? Something that worried him. Something that needed reporting, but not through the usual channels. Am I getting warm?”

“Maybe.”

“Is that why he’s dead, Rob?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“He’s dead because I wasn’t paying attention.”

“The crash was your fault?”

He took a breath. “I don’t know. No, probably not. But I could have prevented it. I think.”

“And you feel guilty?”

“I’m sorry, who did you say you were again?”

“Another drink, Flight Lieutenant?”

He looked down and saw he’d finished his first pint. Susie headed off to the bar.

As Rob watched her chatting with the landlady, he tried to reconcile this smart, confident woman with a peace girl living in a tent.

She arrived back at the table.

He opened his mouth to speak.

“So what did he find?” she asked before he got the first word out.

“I can’t possibly discuss that with you.”

“I understand.” She nodded. “OK, let’s try this. I am not, as you might have guessed, a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. I was in fact under cover, keeping an eye on the subversive types from within. So. Now you know my secret and you could easily compromise me, isn’t it fair we share some information? After all, I’m not going to hand the box back unless I’m sure the security of the country is not at risk from you.”

“From me?”

She shrugged. “I don’t really know what you were doing with it, Mr May. All I know is, you’re desperate to get it back.”

He looked around the pub again. The farmers had sat down. The man with the golden retriever was still at the bar, and two other couples sat at nearby tables.

“You work for the police?” he asked.

“Sort of. A little higher up the chain. I’m the sort of person who could have helped your friend, if events hadn’t intervened.”

“You would have helped him?”

“He asked for my help. In fact we were due to meet on Saturday morning. He trusted me, Rob. So I think you can.”

“You were due to meet Millie?”

She nodded. “Yes. In St Mary and St Mellor church. I was ready to listen to whatever it was he had to say. But he died, hours before. And I’m finding it hard to see that as a coincidence.”

Rob put a hand to his forehead and rested one elbow on the table. He gave a long, deep sigh.

“I just don’t know. I don’t know anymore.”

“What don’t you know?”

He shook his head. “The crash. It wasn’t deliberate. But…”

“But?”

Rob sat upright and stared at her.

“I think I’ve been played.”

He picked up the cryptic notes. “I can’t decipher these notes exactly, but it’s clear that Millie believed the system was flawed. I’m guessing that’s what the numbers are about. The thing is…” He stared at Millie’s handwriting. “The thing is, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“It doesn’t?”

Rob shook his head. “No. The crash proved his point and in one way it achieved his aim. It’s put paid to the project. At the worst possible price.”

“So, Guiding Light is dead?”

“Yes. The Chairman of the Board of Inquiry has as good as told me they know the cause and it can only be the laser.”

“Laser?”

“Forget I said that, please.”

“Sure. But what I don’t get here, Rob, is how your place operates. Millie was a senior officer, right? If he had concerns, why were you still flying?”

Rob bowed his head. “I suspect that’s what Millie was going to talk to you about. There was no hard evidence. Just one moment when it may have gone wrong. So his objection was overruled.”

“Your boss overruled the concerns of his pilots?”

“Millie was an air electronics officer.”

Rob studied the bubbles in his pint.

“Oh, I see,” said Susie. “It was just Millie. So you didn’t believe him, either?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I mean… I sided with the boss because it felt like the right thing to do at the time.”

Susie leant back, not taking her eyes off him. For once she said nothing.

“It was confusing. Kilton, he’s the boss, he convinced me the system was working normally. I agreed for the sake of the project. I gave him an alternative explanation.” He met Susie’s eyes. “I did think it was the right thing, doing what experienced test pilots would do. They’ve seen everything and don’t get fazed by the odd moment in the air.

“Plus, he’s my boss. He gave me all this spiel about Millie being old and about to retire. He said that I was the future and when things happen quickly in jets, it needs fast acting decision makers like me. What else could I do?”

Again, Susie stayed quiet.

“Is Kilton in trouble now it turns out Milford was right?” she asked eventually.

Rob shook his head. “I doubt it. That’s not the way it works. I don’t even know if there’s an official record of the first incident. But he’s lost the project he was so devoted to. So I guess that’s punishment enough.”

She finished her drink and scooped up the piece of paper, clipping it back into her handbag.

“Right, well. That’s that, then. It sounds like the crash did the job Milford wanted, only he paid a heavy price.”

She placed a hand on his. “Look, I doubt an intervention from you would have made any difference. If I know the military and men like Kilton, they don’t have their minds changed easily and they get their own way.”

“I didn’t even try.”

“Well, it’s done now.”

She stood up.

Rob stayed at his seat, her casually spoken words tearing into him.

“What about the box?” she asked.

Slowly, he got to his feet.

“Actually, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I can’t imagine strolling into West Porton and handing it back. They’d want to know exactly why I had it. Plus, I think Kilton would use it to destroy Millie’s reputation and try to get the project back.”

“Want me to dispose of it?”

“Can you burn the documents? I think it’s the only guaranteed way to ensure they don’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“I’m not sure Mrs Holleroid allows bonfires at the Prickwillow B&B, but I’m sure I can organise something. Leave it with me.”

Rob paid the bill at the bar and they walked out together and stood near a VW Beetle in the gravel car park.

“It was nice meeting you, Mr May.”

“And you. Goodbye, Susie.”

She looked back at the inn, then gave him a goodbye kiss.

“Just for show, you understand?”

He watched her climb into the car before wandering off to his own.

She drove off quickly. He started the engine, suddenly feeling numb.

Her question had wounded him.

Oh, I see. It was just Millie. So you didn’t believe him, either?

He found it hard to drive.

After a mile, he pulled into a lay-by, and cried.