The Seventh Scroll

had fallen into Ja

"Does that thing still fly?" Royan asked, as she looked at it standing

forlornly in a back corner of the Valletta airfield. Its drooping belly

gave it the air of a sad old streetwalker who had been put out of

business by an unexpected and unlooked-for pregnancy.

Ja

"The places that he flies to, it's best not to draw envious eyes."

"He certainly succeeds."

"But both Ja

they keep Big Dolly perfect under her engine cowlings.

"Big Dolly?"

"Dolly Parton. Ja

meagre luggage outside the side door of the hangar, and Nicholas paid

the driver while Royan thrust her hands -into the pockets of her anorak

and shivered in the cold wind off the Mediterranean.

"There's Ja

brown overalls coming down the loading ramp of the Hercules. He saw them

and jumped down off the ramp.

"Hello, man! I was begi

shambling across the tarmac. He looked like a rugby player, as he had

been in his youth, and the slight limp was from an old playing-field

injury.

"We were late leaving Heathrow. Strike by French air traffic control.

The joys of international travel," Nicholas told him, and then

introduced Royan.

"Come and meet my new secretary," Ja

She may even give you a cup of coffee."

He led them through a wicket in the main hangar door and into the

cavernous interior. There was a small office cubicle beside the entrance

with a sign over the door saying Africair' and the company logo of a

winged battleaxe.

Mara, Ja

younger than himself. What she lacked in youth and beauty she fully made

up for across the chest.

"Ja

murmured to Royan from the side of his mouth.

Mara gave them coffee, while Ja

Nicholas.

"It's a little complicated," he apologized. "As you can imagine, we will

have to do a bit of ducking and diving.

Muammar Gadaffi is not wallowing in affection for me at the moment, so

I' rather not overfly any of his territory.

We will be going in through Egypt, but without landing there." He

pointed out their flight path on the maps spread over his desk.

"Bit of a problem over the Sudan. They are having a little civil war

there." He winked at Nicholas. I However, the northern government are

not equipped with the most up-to'date radar in the world. Lot of old

Russian reject stuff. It's an enormous bit of country, and Fred and I

have worked out their blank spots. We will be keeping well clear of

their main military installations."

"What's our flying time?" Nicholas wanted to know.

Ja

you we will not be taking any short-cuts."

"How long?"Nicholas insisted.

"Fred and I have rigged up bunks and a kitchen, so that during the

flight you will have all the comforts of home." He lifted his cap and

scratched his head before he admitted, "Fifteen hours."

"Has Big Dolly got that sort of endurance?" Nicholas wanted to know.

"Extra tanks. Seventy-one thousand kilos of fuel. Even with the load you

have given us, we can get there and back without refuelling." He was

interrupted by the huge hangar doors rolling open, and a heavy truck

being driven through. "That will be Fred and Sapper now." Ja

the last of his coffee and hugged Mara. She giggled, and her bosom

quivered like a snowfield on the point of an avalanche.

The truck parked at the far end of the hangar, where. an array of

equipment and stores was already neatly stacked, ready for loading. When

Fred climbed down from the cab, Ja

younger version of the father, already begi

waist, and with an open bucolic face, more like a Karroo sheep farmer

than a commercial pilot.

"That's the last truckload." Sapper came around the front of the truck

and shook Nicholas's hand. "All set to begin loading."

"I want to take off before four 'clock tomorrow morning. That will get

us into our rendezvous at the optimum time tomorrow evening,'Ja

in. "We have a bit of work to do, if we are going to get some sleep

before we leave." He gestured to the pallets waiting to be loaded.

I wanted to get some of the local lads to give a hand with the loading,

but Sapper wouldn't hear of it."

"Quite right," Nicholas agreed, "The fewer who are in on this, the

merrier. Let's get cracking."

The cargo had been prepacked on the steel pallets, secured with heavy

nylon strapping and covered with cargo netting. There were thirty-six

loaded pallets, and the canvas packs containing the parachutes formed an

integral part of each load. This huge Cargo would require two separate

flights to ferry it all across to Africa.

Royan called out the contents of each pallet from the typed manifest,

while Nicholas checkd it against the actual load. Nicholas and Sapper

had worked out the loads carefully to ensure that the items that would

be required first were on the initial flight. Only when he was Certain

that each pallet was complete in every detail id he signal to Fred, who

was operating the forklift. Fred ran the arms into the slots of the

pallet and lifted it, then he drove it out of the hangar and up the ramp

of the Hercules.

In the hold of the enormous aircraft, ja

position each pallet precisely on the rollers and then strap it down

securely. The last part of the cargo to go aboard was the small

front-end-loading tractor.

Sapper had found this in a secondhand yard in York, and after testing it

exhaustively declared it to be a "steal'. Now he drove this up the ramp

under its own power, and lovingly strapped it down to the rollers.

The -tractor made up almost a third of the total weight of the entire

shipment, but it was the one item that Sapper considered essential if

they were to complete the earthworks for the dam in the time that

Nicholas had stipulated.

He had calculated that it would require a cluster of five cargo

parachutes to get the heavy tractor back to earth without damage. Fuel

for it would of course present a problem, and the bulk of the second

cargo would be made up of dieseline in special nylon tanks that could

withstand the impact of an airdrop.

it was after midnight before the aircraft was loaded with the first

shipment. The remaining pallets were still stacked against the hangar

wall awaiting Big Dolly's return for the second flight. Now they could

turn their full attention to the farewell banquet of island specialities

that Mara had laid out for the ' in the tiny Africair office.

"Yes," Ja

loving squeeze as she rested her bosom on his shoulder, leaning over him

to refill his plate with calamari.