Chapter XII – The Ops Room

It was 5.30 the next morning. The sky was getting light. Darryl had driven the kids up to the airfield gates. The gates were shut and locked. And there was a new wire fence all around the airfield.

The kids got out of the van. Frankie, Jack and Regan were carrying a metal detector.

‘I’m going to hide the van over there, behind those trees,’ Darryl said. He pointed to a place a hundred meters away. ‘If i see anyone coming, I’ll sound the van’s horn. Good luck!’

The kids climbed carefully over the gates. Tom put on the headphones which were connected to the handle of the metal detector. Then the four friends started to search the ground carefully, meter by meter. They all looked carefully at the ground in front of them, and Tom moved the metal detector from side to side.

After he’d watched them climb over the gates, Darryl drove the van under the trees. He was very tired. He didn’t like getting up at five o’clock in the morning. He tried to stay awake. But after a few minutes, he was asleep.

____________

It was an hour later. The children had searched only a small area of the airfield.

‘This is taking too long,’ Reagan said angrily. ‘We’ll never find anything.’ She looked up for a moment. Then she gasped. She pointed to the small hill over the old Ops room.

‘Look!’ she whispered.

A line of women was walking over the grass. They were dressed in WAAF uniforms. A pale light was glowing all around them.

As the four friends watched them, the WAAFs disappeared into the hill, one by one.

Regan ran towards the women.

‘Come back! Come back!’ she shouted. But the women had gone.

Frankie, Jack and Tom followed Regan. Tom moved the metal detector over the grass on top of the little hill. Suddenly. there was a sharp sound in his headphones.

‘There’s a big piece of metal under here,’ he said. ‘Quickly! Dig, everybody!’

The kids started to dig with their spades. Ten minutes later, there had found a big black metal hatch – a door in the ground. The hatch was two meters and slowly, the heavy  hatch opened. Underneath it, they saw some concrete steps. And at the bottom of the steps there was a red metal door.

Chapter XI - The Diary

Radnor Road was in a new part of Lychford. The Bowles’ house was a large, modern one. There was a high fence around the house and garden.
The four friends walked up to the front door. Jack rang the doorbell twice, but there was no answer.
He turned away from the door and began to walk to the back of the house. He had to het inside. The others followed him.
At the back of the house, there was some white furniture in the garden. And there were two tall glass doors, which led into the house. They were not locked. Jack pulled open one door and took a step into a large room.
‘Wait for me here,’ he said to the others.
The room was an office. Jack could see a desk, a computer, a metal cupboard and lots of bookshelves.
There was a strange, frightening feeling in the room. For a moment, Jack wanted to leave. Then he saw a small green notebook on the desk.
‘That’s the Squadron Leader’s diary,’ Jack said to himself. ‘I must read it’
He walked slowly towards the desk. It was very difficult for him to move now. Something wicked was trying to stop him.
Jack’s fingers touched the diary. It was very, very cold…

Suddenly, it was night – dark, dark night. After first, Jack couldn’t see anything. Then he knew where he was. He was standing in the middle of Lychford Green airfield. He was near the control tower. But it wasn’t a ruin, covered with grass and weeds. It was a new control tower. There were other new buildings nearly. Jack heard a car passing a few metres away. Then he heard people walking about. He was back in 1940!
Two hundred metres away, Jack saw some large shapes. They were black against the dark sky. He had seen the ruins of these buildings from the air, earlier that day. Aircraft were kept in them. He knew that. He walked towards them.
When he was near the first building, Jack heard a sharp noise inside it. He went quietly into the building. There were several Spitfires inside.
Jack stood under the wing of the nearest Spitfire. A man was working on the plane. Immediately, Jack knew something about him. He was a wicked man!
Jack waited. After a while, the man finished his work and he turned around. Jack could see the man’s face now. The boy had seen that face before – in an old photo at the museum. It was the face of Squadron Leader Leighbridge-Smith. The Squadron Leader was the traitor at Lychford Green airfield!
‘This Spitfire is Glen Loostthawk’s plane,’ Jack thought. ‘Today is the 23rd of August, 1940. on the 24th, Glen’s plane will crash. He will die and so will the four evacuees. The Squadron Leader broke something inside Glen’s plane. He is a murderer!’

‘… and what are you doing in my house?’ a woman’s voice was shouting. ‘How did you get in here?’
Frankie, Tom and Regan were in the room with Jack now. The woman who was shouting at them was wearing a bathrobe. A towel was tied around her head.
‘We rang the front doorbell,’ Tom said quickly. ‘There was no answer, so we came round to the back of the house.’
‘You walked into my house while I was taking a bath!’ the woman shouted. ‘I’m going to call the police.’
‘No, please don’t do that,’ Jack said. ‘My name is Jack Christmas. I phoned you yesterday. I wanted to talk to your husband.’
‘My husband is busy at the airfield,’ Mrs Bowles said. ‘He isn’t going to speak to you.’
‘He’s at the airfield?’ Regan said. ‘Does he work for Facelift Construction?’
‘My husband owns Facelift Construction,’ Mrs Bowles replied. ‘Now get out of my house – all of you!’
There was nothing more that the children could do. They walked slowly down Radnor Road. As they were walking along, Jack told them his story.
‘So the Squadron Leader was the traitor,’ Regan said. ‘Mr Bowles must know about it. He knows what’s in his grandfather’s diary. He understands the code. That’s why he doesn’t want us to see diary.’
‘But why did the Squadron Leader kill Glen?’ Frankie asked.
‘Glen found out the truth,’ Tom said. ‘So the traitor killed him. It’s simple.’
‘And the proof of the traitor’s wickedness is under the ground somewhere on the airfield,’ Regan said quickly. ‘Mr Bowles knows that, and he is looking for the proof too. But we must find it first!’

Chapter X - The Battle in the Sky

The kids were in Darryl’s van. They were on their way to the airfield at Halleyford, about thirty kilometres from Lychford. Darryl was very interested in Glen’s message.
‘I argee with Tom and Frankie,’ he said. ‘There is something important under Lychford Green airfield. Glen wants you find it.’
Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the sky above them. For a moment, a dark shape covered the sun.
‘It’s a Spitfire!’ Tom said.
‘It’s Glen!’ Regan whispered.
Darryl laughed and shook his head.
‘No, it isn’t Glen,’ he said. ‘That’s a real Spitfire. It flies from Halleyford airfield? Good,’ Jack said. ‘The past and the present are getting very mixed up!’
Darryl and the kids were going to fly in an old plane – a De Havilland Dragon Rapide. There were eight seats for passengers in the plane, but they were very close together. Darryl and the kids climbed in. The heaviest people sat at the back, the lighest in the front. The pilot got in last. Regan was sitting nearest to him.
The pilot started the engines and the old plane began to move. And then they were in the air.
The children looked down. The cars on the roads were tiny. The little fields were green, yellow and brown squares.
‘We’ll soon be over Lychford Green airfield,’ Darryl shouted after ten minutes. The noise of the engines was loud and he had to shout. ‘Get your camera ready, Tom.’
The pilot took the plane lower. Now they could all see the airfield. They could see the old control tower and the other broken buildings. They could see the little round hill above the underground Ops Room. There were the three runways. And there were the Facelift Construction trucks. But there were no people working on the airfield.
‘Facelift Construction hasn’t started work yet,’ Jack said to himself. ‘Perhaps we will be able to use the metal detector. We really must get onto the airfield again.’
‘Have you taken your photos, Tom?’ the pilot shouted.
‘Yes, thanks. I’ve used all the film,’ Tom said.
‘OK. I’m turning back now. We don’t …’

Suddenly, there was complete silence. Had the plane’s engines stopped? Frankie turned round quickly. Jack was shouting at her. She could see his mouth moving, but she couldn’t hear his words. Behind Jack, Darryl was sitting very still. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t seeing anything.
Regan and Tom were shouting now, but Frankie couldn’t hear them either. Jack pointed at the pilot. Regan touched the man on the arm. The pilot didn’t move, but the plane flew on. What was happening?
There was a dark shape in the sky, coming towards them. Then there were two dark shapes. And close behind them were two more. They were planes.
Tom knew what the planes were. They were Messerschmitt 109s – German fighter planes from the Second World War! The Messerschmitts had guns and now they were shooting at the Dragon Rapide. The kids saw the bullets hitting the wings of the plane. But there was still no sound.
‘Is this happening now or in the past?’ Jack asked himself.
The Dragon Rapide turned slowly. Now it was going down. The ground was coming nearer and nearer.
Frankie quickly unfastened her seat belt. She moved carefully towards the pilot. He was holding the control column in his hands, but he was not controlling the plane. Frankie put her hands over his hands, and tried to pull the column back. It was very difficult, but at last the control column moved. Soon, the plane was flying straight ahead again.
And now there were three more planes in the sky. They were Spitfires! The first Spitfires fired its guns. Its bullets hit one of the German planes and the Messerschmitt began to fall.

Then suddenly, the sky was empty. The Dragon Rapide’s engines were roaring loudly. The children could hear the wind again. And the pilot was speaking.
‘… have much fuel,’ the pilot was saying. ‘Have you all enjoyed the flight? Was it exciting?’
‘Oh, yes, we enjoyed it very much,’ Frankie replied. ‘It was very exciting.’ And the kids all laughed.

When they were back in Darryl’s van, the four friends told him what had happened.
‘Was that battle another Psychic Stain?’ Jack asked him.
‘No, Glen made that happen,’ Darryl said. ‘He was probably telling you to do something. But what?’
‘If Glen can do that, he must be very powerful,’ Regan said. ‘He can take us into the past whenever ha wants to.’
‘Perhaps we are giving Glen his power,’ Jack said.
‘Yes, that’s possible,’ Darryl replied. ‘Well, I’m going to get that metal detector for you this evening. Where do you want to go now?’
‘Take us to Radnor Road, please,’ Jack said. ‘I want to visit Mr Terry Bowles.’
‘Why?’ Regan asked.
‘I want to see that diary,’ Jack replied. ‘The diary is very important. I’m sure about that!’

Chapter IX - 'Glen Did This'

Back at their house, Jack and Tom were talking about Glen's strangle message - TRAITOR. What was the phan-tom airman trying to tell them?
‘Perhaps there was a traitor on the airfield,’ Tom said. ‘I want to see the Squadron Leader’s diary. We might learn about the traitor from that.’
‘Yes,’ Jack replied. ‘But there’s something strange about the diary. I’m sure of that.’
‘Let’s phone the Squadron Leader’s grandson, Terry Bowles. Give me the phone book, Jack,’ his brother said.
Tom read out the number and Jack dialled it. In a few moments, a woman’s voice answered. Jack asked for Mr Bowles.
‘I’m sorry, Mr Bowles isn’t here at the moment,’ the woman said. ‘I’m his wife. Can I help you?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Jack said. ‘My name is Jack Christmas. My friends and I are doing a project about Lychford airfield in 1940. someone in the RAF was working for the Germans. But we don’t know who it was. We’d like to see Squadron Learder Leightbridge-Smith’s diary. Can we speak to your husband about it when he comes home?’
Mrs Bowles laughed.
‘There was no traitor,’ she said, ‘I’ve been helping my husband with his work on the diary. There’s nothing in it about a traitor. You’ve watched too many spy films, Jack! But tell me your number. I’ll ask my husband to phone you, when he has time. He’s very busy at the moment.’
Jack put down the phone.
‘We won’t get any help from Mr or Mrs Bowles,’ he said. ‘Let’s finish putting out notes onto the computer. We’ll talk to the girls about this in the morning.’

In the middle of the night, Regan woke up suddenly. Something strange washappening. She was falling through the air and her room was full of smoke.
She fell to the ground, but she wasn’t hurt. She had fallen very gently. But now, part of her bedroom was on fire. She saw flames moving through the room.
The flames moved nearer and nearer to the terrified girl. And then they covered her.
Now Frankie was awake too. She heard noises – guns firing, and loud explosions that shook the room. Huge flames were anywhere. They were on the walls, on the curtains and all round her bed. And Regan had gone! Where was she?
Frankie opened her mouth, she was going to scream. Then she saw Regan. The American girl was walking through the flames towards her.
‘The flames are cold,’ Regan whispered, as she sat on Frankie’s bed.
Then the bed started to move. And all the other furniture in the room started to move too. It turned round and round. Everything was covered in flames. But the flames were as cold as ice!
Suddenly there was silence. No noise. No flames. The two girls sat on the bed and looked at each other. The room was wrecked. Everything was on the floor – books, clothes, magazines.
Regan pushed her long black hair away from her face.
‘Hi!’ she said.
‘What happened?’ Frankie gasped.
‘Glen did this,’ Regan replied. ‘He’s angry because we didn’t get all of his message. Perhaps …’
She didn’t finish her sentence because they heard a terrible scream outside the door.
‘Jennie!’ Regan shouted. She ran to the door and pulled it open.
Outside the bedroom, Regan and Frankie saw Jennie.
She was floating above their heads. She was turning round and round in a strong wind. And as they watched, the wind pushed Jennie to the top of the stairs.
‘No. Glen! No!’ Regan shouted. ‘Don’t hurt her!’
The wind stopped and Jennie fell gently to the floor. She stared at the two friends for a moment. Then, without speaking, she got up and walked into her own room. She shut the door behind her.
Regan and Frankie went back into Regan’s room. Together, they put everything in its place. Nothing had been broken. Nothing had been burnt.
Then the two girls lay on their beds and fell asleep immediately.

Frankie and Regan were still asleep when the boys rang the doorbell the next morning. When the girls were dressed, everybody went into the kitchen. Regan told Jack and Tom what had happened.
‘Why did you let Jennie throw away the piece of metal?’ Tom asked Regan. ‘Now we’ve only got half a message. And we can’t understand it.’
At the moment, the kitchen door opened and Jennie came into the room.
‘Hi, Jennie,’ Regan said. ‘You look terrible.’
This was true. Jennie looked tired and frightened.
‘You must tell me something,’ Jennie said. ‘In the middle of the night, did I wake up on the floor outside my room? That’s what I remember. You were there. I saw you. But perhaps I was dreaming. I was dreaming, wasn’t I, Regan? It was all a dream?’
‘Yes,” Regan replied. ‘You were dreaming.’
‘Thanks,’ Jennie said. ‘I’m going back to bed now.’
When Jennie had gone, Regan laughed. ‘We won’t have any more trouble from the Blond Bimbo,’ she said. ‘Now, what are we going to do about Glen?’ She repeated the message again. ‘It says, “Help me rest safe under the air” Perhaps the next letters were going to be f-i-e-l-d. is Glen buried under the airfield? Does he want us to stop the construction work?’
‘No, Glen can’t be buried there,’ Jack said. ‘Perhaps Glen was going to write two sentences. Perhaps he wanted to say, “Help me rest safe. Under the airfield” But he didn’t tell us what under the airfield.’
‘There must be something under the airfield,’ Tom said.
‘And Glen wants us to find it,’ said Frankie went on. ‘Perhaps it’s something about the traitor.’
“We must go to the airfield again,’ Jack told the others. ‘I want to use that metal detector there.’
‘Perhaps Darryl will have some more ideas,’ Regan said.
‘We’ll ask him,’ Jack replied. ‘We’re meeting him at one o’clock. We’re going up in the old plane this afternoon. Tom has bought his camera.’

Chapter VIII – The Message

The kids went back to Regan’s house.

Regan put the piece of twisted metal on a table in the sitting-room. They all looked at it in silence for a few minutes.

‘Come on, do something,’ Regan said to the piece of metal. Nothing happened.

‘Do you want it to talk to you?’ Tom asked.

‘I want it to help us,’ Regan replied.

Ten minutes later, the piece of metal hadn’t done anything.

‘Oh, come on!’ Regan said. ‘Let’s go into the kitchen and get a drink.’

Soon, they were all sitting round the kitchen table with cans of cola.
‘We’re going up in the old plane tomorrow,’ Tom said. ‘I’m glad about that. If I can’t take any more photos on the airfield, I’ll take some from the air above it.’
‘We won’t be able to use the metal detector, though,’ Frankie said sadly.
‘Oh, let’s just forget about the project,’ Regan said angrily. She got up suddenly and went back into the sitting-room. A moment later, the others heard her screaming.
‘Come here! Come here quickly!’ Regan shouted. ‘It’s moved! The metal has moved!’
Frankie, Jack and Tom ran into the sitting-room. They all stared down at the table. One word had been scratched into the shiny wood: TRAITOR.
‘Was there a traitor at the airfield?’ Jack said. ‘Was someone there helping the Germans? Is that what Glen is telling us.’
‘Let’s go back into the kitchen,’ Tom said. ‘The message probably isn’t finished yet. Perhaps the metal will write some more, if we don’t watch it.’
‘It might write some more, but not on this table!’ Regan replied. ‘My parents paid more than two thousand dollars for it in New York City. I’m taking the metal upstairs, to my bedroom.’
She picked up the piece of mental carefully and the others followed her upstairs. Regan put the piece of metal on a desk near the window in her room.
‘We’ll leave it alone now,’ she said. ‘We’ll go back to kitchen and I’ll cook some pizza.’
During the next two hours, Regan went up to her bedroom several times. The metal hadn’t moved.
At last, it was evening. Jack and Tom had to go home. But Frankie decided to stay at Regan’s house for the night. She phoned her mother with this news.
Late in the evening, Jennie St Clair came home. She had been out of the house for most of the day. Now she went straight to her own room.
‘The Blonde Bimbo will be watching TV all night,’ Regan said. ‘She doesn’t care what I do. Why does my father pay her?’

After that, the two friends went up to Regan’s bedroom again. The piece of metal still hadn’t moved.
There were two beds in the room, and each girl sat on one. Later, they heard Jennie go downstairs. Soon the house was quite again.
Then the piece of metal began to move! It moved slowly over the top of the desk – scratch, scratch, scratch. The girls watched it from their beds. They couldn’t speak – they were terrified.
Suddenly, the bedroom door was opened wide.
‘You stupid, stupid kid!’ Jennie St Clair shouted. ‘You’re crazy, that’s what you are. You’ve wrecked that table in the sitting-room. It must have cost your parents thousands of dollars. I’m going to phone your mother about this – now!’The piece of metal had stopped moving at the moment when Jennie came into the room. Regan was glad about that. She didn’t want the au pair to see it.

It was an accident, Jennie,’ Regan said. ‘Someone can repair the table. I’ll pay for the work myself.’ Suddenly her voice was angry. ‘Don’t phone my mother, Jennie,’ she said. ‘If you do, I’ll tell her a few things about you. You watch TV all the time and phone people in the US. You don’t look after me at all. I’ll tell my mother that!’
Jennie was very angry. She went towards Regan’s bed, but then she saw the scratches on the desk.
‘You’re wrecking the furniture in here too!’ she shouted. She ran to the desk and picked up the piece of metal. Then she turned and left the room with it. She closed the door behind her with a loud noise.
‘Come back here! Give me that!’ Regan shouted. She opened the door and ran downstairs after Jennie.
Frankie got up and walked over to the desk. She wanted to see what the piece of metal had written now.
She saw a line of letters, scratched into the wood. HELPMERESTSAFEUNDERTHEAR
‘Help – me – rest – safe – under – the – air,’ Frankie read.
‘What does that mean? I don’t understand,’ she said to herself.
She heard the front door close with a loud coise. Regan was coming back upstairs. A moment later, she came into the bedroom.
‘Do you know what Jennie has done?’ Regan shouted. ‘She ran out of the house. Then she threw that piece of metal into a truck that was passing. Can you believe that? The metal has gone for ever. How can we help Glen now?’
‘Well, the metal did write several words,’ said Frankie. ‘They might help us. Come and see.’
Regan looked at the letters on the top of the desk.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘I’m tired. Let’s go to the bed now. We’ll phone the boys about this in the morning.’