Flight Path: A Wright & Tran Novel (20 page)

18
th
Arrondissement, Paris.

The crossword pag
e
was on the bed of Kara’s room and at an arbitrary first glance looked like a properly completed puzzle. A closer examination revealed it was filled in with a random collection of letters that didn’t seem to make a single legible word in any of the available spaces.

“Tien?” Kara said.

Tien lifted the page and went across to the small writing desk set to the side of the room. Taking the hotel’s thin notepad, she copied down all the letters from the crossword. The rest of the team were quiet as she bracketed the page with her elbows and leant her head in her hands. After a few minutes she began writing again, then paused, her pencil hovering. Another five minutes ticked by before she smiled, looked around at Toby and said, “I see what he’s done. Your brother’s quite clever, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, for an ex-gunner,” he laughed.

“Well, ex-gunner or not, he’s been commendably logical,” she said, flipping another notepad page and writing more words. After a few more minutes she stopped and her look of concentration was replaced with one of concern, “Oh no way is that happening.”

“What is it?” Kara asked, “Have you deciphered it?”

“Yes, but I don’t like his message.” She held up the notepad and pointed to the first block, “These are the across words if you follow the clue spaces.”

mtiinodn     ewrasr

ymwahteerseadfe

tsteosneic     guhr

eexetfr    leimgeh

sotcmao     tnitohn

nios     winoenvmea

roopcmeoendiitn

dkehse     tairntas

She pointed to the next block, “And these are the down words.”

meyette, imw, nvhpotttmd, dcehn

wleo, ardruyglokm, rieurrh, eraitlst

tixftuodoge, hirienpdar, rionieed, ssnrrod, ncatnrs, oseea, ycrs, idt

“Yep, still makes no sense,” Kara said.

“I thought maybe it was a replacement cypher but whichever way you read it there are just too many double letter combinations to be sensible. So, then I just wrote all of the letters in sequence, line by line, and got this.”

mtiinodnewrasremvcelriymwahteerseadfeephaoru

tsteosneicguhrtitthyreexetfrleimgehftisrlsotcmaotnitohn

sudnekcnioswinoenvmeardyesptroopcmeoendiitnogrdeadr

dkehsetairntas

Kara peered at the letters, “Mmm, if we were in parliament, I’d be saying that I refer you to my previous answer.”

“Well, if you ignore the word and line breaks and run everything together in a continuous loop, then extract every second letter, you get this,” Tien said and flipped to the next page.

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minders everywhere depart tonight three flights

location unknown every stop monitored destination

warm climate safe house security extreme first months

decision made proceeding dark hearts

“There’s no way we let him leave to go somewhere we have no idea about, without any communications and with no way to back him up,” Tien said.

Kara was surprised by Tien’s tone. The calm and relaxed manner that normally ruled her every word and action seemed strained. “Okay,” she said, somewhat hesitantly. “Chaz what do you think?”

Chaz sat down on the bed and looked up at Kara, “It’s a high risk proposition. If they’re going to fly him here, there and everywhere, then we’ll have no idea where he ends up. We can’t hope to just follow him to the airport and buy a ticket for the flight he checks-in for. It’s unlikely to work and we’d be relying on luck to get close enough. We could easily lose him at the first hurdle. Then add another two flights and he could be in deepest Mongolia. We won’t know and like Tien says, he won’t have comms. If things go bad he’ll be completely alone.”

“Granted,” Kara agreed. “But he must have a concept of how he’s going to get in touch with us. He wouldn’t just launch into the unknown, not from what I’ve seen today. He was switched on and a good, smart operator. I th-”

“That’s as maybe,” Tien interrupted. “But what we’re contemplating is on a different level. He knew we were nearby today. This is different. He’ll be completely on his own,”

Kara wasn’t too sure how to respond. She was aware that Tien was still holding the pencil, but in a clenched fist. As Kara considered how to continue, Tien did it for her.

“Sammi, what are your thoughts?” she said towards the radio mic.

“I’ll be honest, if it was one of us, or the O’Neill brothers making the call, I wouldn’t question it. But you all know we haven’t had the depth of experience with Jacob, or you Toby. No offence, but is he up to it?”

Sammi’s question caused Kara, Chaz and Tien to turn towards Toby who sat in a chair next to the bed. He looked relaxed. “I’m naturally biased,” he said, “but yes, he’s capable. What you saw today is my brother doing what he does best. Adapting, learning on the job, becoming capable in techniques he’s only just been shown. I know we haven’t done much in-depth stuff with you guys previously, and it’s good that you’re looking out for him, but the conversation’s wasted.”

“Why’s that?” Tien said before anyone else could respond.

“He wrote dark hearts, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Tien confirmed, looking back at the notepad.

“Then it’s a done deal. He’s going to do it and us wondering if we think it’s a good idea doesn’t matter.”

Tien glanced at Kara but she just shrugged back at her, “I don’t understand. Isn’t he just meaning the men he’s with are bad men, with dark hearts?” Tien asked.

Toby shook his head, “Nope. Dark hearts means something specific to Jacob.”

“What?” Tien said, her obvious frustration more than apparent in her tone.

“There’s a bit of a story to it.”

“Probably best we hear it,” Kara said.

Toby sat forward, “You’ve all done basic training in the military and you all know how seemingly pointless it is. But then, when you graduate and look back, you see the reason for the running and marching and cleaning. Especially the cleaning. What seems completely useless for military training is actually all about team work, attention to detail and building moral character.”

“Yeah, but how is this relevant?” Tien said, not attempting to mask her growing agitation.

Unseen by her, Chaz and Kara swapped a look.

“Well, after basic I got sent to RAF Honington for the Trainee Gunner’s course. Chaz, Sammi and Kara know about it Tien, but the closest I can put it for someone who was army, like you; well, the TG has a reputation. Not as bad as P-company, but it’s still known for being a hard course. Physical, tough.”

“Where’s this going Toby?” Tien interrupted.

“Tien,” Kara said.

“Yes.”

Kara walked over and knelt beside Tien’s chair. She reached out and took the pencil from her friend’s still clenched fist, “Let Toby finish his story, eh?”

Tien looked down and blushed. “Oh. Yes. Sorry. Sorry Toby.”

“No problem,” he said, before continuing, “Anyway, as well as the physical stuff we did all the normal crap, including a bull-night every week. You know, cleaning everything and getting ready for an inspection the next morning.”

They all nodded, Tien included.

“The block I was in had white tiles in its ablution areas. They had to be spotless, but in the middle of a set of six washbasins, one tile had a series of dark smudges in the shape of three small hearts. They were rough, raised up on the surface and felt like tar or rubber had been melted onto the tile. The guy who was on that section of the block got torn a new arsehole on the first inspection. We were all made to do extra physical training that day and the next. All the blame was put on to him and everyone was left in no doubt that if he fucked up again there’d be hell to pay the next week.” Toby paused and smiled around at them. Kara was pleased to see Tien reciprocate his expression as they all recalled similar experiences.

“Needless to say, on the next bull-night we all pitched in to try to get those damn marks off the tile. We failed and we went for more long runs. It went on like that for the first six weeks. Every week, another inspection, every week, more long runs. I think we must have used every chemical under the sun, but all to no avail. Then, we moved accommodation blocks and the dark smudges were a distant memory.”

“I want to know who comes up with shit like that. There must be a secret school where military instructors lie around thinking up things to clean,” Chaz said.

Tien leaned forward as if she was going to interrupt, but Kara put her hand on her knee and she relaxed back into the chair. “Go on Toby,” Kara said.

“Jacob joined up a good while after me, but the training was much the same. He phoned one night, early on in his course, and somewhere in the midst of the call he asked if I had any good tips for getting dirt off a tile. I asked him why and he told me about the dark smudges. Obviously I remembered them, laughed a lot and told him my story. He said exactly the same was happening to his course. Then I told him what the instructors had told us at the end of our Passing Out Parade. Back when the block was being built a box of tiles had turned up with a design flaw in them. Just one box, but every tile had three little heart shaped smudges that looked like a stain. Some bastard thought it’d be a great idea to put one in each ablution area in the new recruit’s block. The rest as they say was history.”

Kara, Chaz and even Sammi on the other end of the radio laughed along with Toby. Tien merely said, “So?”

This time Kara watched Toby look at Tien. She wondered if he’d seen the obvious.

“So, I told Jacob and said that he and his mates could save a lot of time by not trying to get the marks out. He’d be a hero. There was a long pause on the line and then my kid brother, who had just turned eighteen said, ‘Nah. I don’t think I will.’ I asked him why not and he said that those dark hearts were making a loose bunch of kids into a team. He knew, even then, at that age, that it was way more than cleaning. He ended the call by saying, ‘Those tiles will help us help each other, even when things seem bleak.’ I was pretty proud of him that night. Still am.”