The Burning Sky Read Free

trench coat and carrying a large Gladstone bag. With a gesture he indicated that Lanchester should follow him and they made their way down the alley and out onto the wide avenue of the Reeperbahn.
    ‘Cab rank, over there.’
    ‘You armed?’
    Jardine patted a bulging trench coat pocket. ‘Just a precaution, Peter.’
    They were crossing the street when the open-topped truck appeared, loaded with burly SA Brownshirts, the street-fighting thugs of the Third Reich. Cal turned his face away until they got into a cab, then with the doorclosed and a hand shielding his face, he watched as the Brownshirts jumped down and ran into the dingy bar, each one carrying a club or a cosh.
    ‘Where are you staying, Peter?’
    ‘Kaiserhof.’
    ‘ Altona Bahnhof, bitte ,’ Callum said to the driver. ‘Might I suggest you ring and request them to send your luggage back to England? Ask how much the bill is, including carriage, and say you will send a cheque.’
    ‘Why the train?’
    Callum Jardine just smiled. ‘So what is this honourable job?’
    ‘Abyssinia. The Italians are gearing themselves up to invade and the poor fuzzy-wuzzies will struggle to boot them out.’
    ‘They did it before.’
    ‘The Battle of Adowa was forty years ago, Cal, and Mussolini is a different kettle of fish altogether. Officially HMG’s policy is to work through the League of Nations, and before you say what a lot of good that will do, I will say the folk I represent wholeheartedly agree with you. The League is a toothless tiger, but Stanley Baldwin knows the British electorate will not tolerate anything that smells of war, quite apart from the fact that challenging Italy might drive Il Duce into the arms of Hitler, which is inimical to British foreign policy.’
    ‘I seem to remember the British Foreign Office to be a murderous beast, Peter.’
    ‘They believe in realpolitik, Cal, as the Huns are wont to say, but there are others less concerned with that whoare prepared to act. We need to get some modern weaponry into Abyssinia and damned quick, and we would like you to both buy it and deliver it.’
    ‘You seem very sure I can do this.’
    ‘Don’t be modest, Cal, you’ve run guns in the past.’
    The taxi pulled up outside the railway station and they both got out, Jardine paying the driver and giving him an overly lavish tip. Entering the concourse, walking quickly, he made straight for a side exit, calling to Lanchester to pass his bowler, which he did. Callum Jardine then dropped it into the first litter bin they passed.
    ‘I say, Callum old boy, I bought that in Jermyn Street at no little cost.’
    ‘Too distinctive and Messrs Bates and Company will happily sell you a replacement. That taxi driver, who I tipped excessively, will be questioned and he will not only recall two Englishmen, one of them wearing a very distinctive hat, but will tell them we came here. They, I hope, will then assume we have made for somewhere like Copenhagen, given the trains to there run from Altona.’
    ‘And we’re not.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘You have a safe route out?’
    Jardine had opened his Gladstone bag to produce a woollen muffler, which he handed to a companion who did not have to be told to put it on. ‘I wouldn’t be much of a Scarlet Pimpernel if I had no way to save myself, Peter – more than one, in fact.’ Jardine then put a couple of pfennigs into his hand and indicated a phone booth. ‘Now, you have just time to make that call to your hotel.’
    ‘And then?’
    ‘Certain things have to be brought forward.’
    ‘Your Jews?’
    ‘That fellow you saw me talking to when you came in is, if all goes to plan, going to take us all to Rotterdam. You might just get a chance to learn a little Yiddish in the next few days.’
    Lanchester was on his way to the phone when he stopped and turned back, his look curious. ‘What about your paramour, Cal, the widow, your contact in the party office – is she to be left to her own fate after tipping you