The cuckoo

The Best Laid Plans. Chapter 13

George eagerly asked Harry what plan B was.  Harry explained to him that Alan owned a small private plane.  A little Piper that Alan and Julian had named Rosy.  This lived in a little hanger in Stapleford Abbotts Airfield.  It seemed that a few of the pilots and technicians at the airport owned or had time shares in private aircraft.

With Alan driving and his son next to him their little group set off for Stapleford, and after about 50 mins they were parking the car in the tiny airfield next to a large black shed like hanger fronting onto a very basic looking runway that looked not a lot dissimilar to an ashfelt road.  Wasting no time they were onboard and their luggage was installed into a small area behind the seats.  Quickly Alan was on his radio asking permission to move his aircraft on to the small runway, explaining to the controller that he and his son wished for permission to depart as soon as was safe.  Father and son went through a complicated list of checks on the aircraft instruments, and then some physical exterior ones too before announcing they were good to take off.

Eventually the words Clear for take off  arrived and immediately they were racing along the runway and lifting off into the air.  All three of us in the back seat had relief written all over our faces, although at the front Julian looked only concerned.  Maybe in part because they had only declared his Father and himself as the occupants and even this was illegal.   As we flew Julian plotted our course to Reykjavik domestic airport.  He then informed us all that we should arrive in around two and a half to three hrs.  The time now was 3 30 a.m.  Harry said that even after it was discovered that we had left the airport at 4 30 a.m nobody would think anything of it and would just assume that we had left earlier to catch our flight from Stanstead, and by the time they were aware that we hadn't caught it we would have landed.

At Stanstead their helpful young taxi driver had continued onto the airport rank to get into the queue, to hopefully acquire a fare.  The way it works is that the taxi jumps onto the end of the queue at the rank, and  the foremost suitable vehicle for each fare will pick the parties up.  Joe decided to take the opportunity to nip inside and grab a quick coffee from the machine, so as soon as the queue moved forward a place he jumped out of his cab and briskly walked inside and headed for the vending machine.  He stopped dead in his tracks as there on a big screen on the wall was an alert sign with a large photo of his last fare Harry.  Report to a member of staff if you see this man said the legend, Do not approach this man he may be dangerous!

Forgetting all about his cab in the queue outside and his coffee to be Joe reported straight to the nearest security man he knew by sight and told him his story, and of where Harry could now be found.  The time was now 3 a.m and it was still 30 minutes before Harry's party would become airborne. 

Back aboard the Rosy Julian left his seat at the front and sat with the others behind.  Harry took this opportunity to go forward and sit next to Alan.  May noticed that Julian looked strained and that his hands were trembling and her heart went out to him.  He had unwaveringly put his trust in his father and gone along with everything he had asked him to even knowing it was irregular and might get him into trouble.  She tapped his arm and leaned into him a little.  "This must all seem very strange to you Julian.  It is not fair on you and you are helping us without quarrel so I am going to take it upon myself to be honest with you because you deserve to know what we know.  Please try to keep an open mind and try not to attempt to understand what I'm going to tell you until you have heard all I have to say"

May then proceeded to recount as accurately as possible their adventures so far.  Some thing about the straightforward way that she explained events did have Jules wondering.  But how could something like this happen in the real world.  Another compelling reason he was even half considering there could be some truth in this was the realisation that he felt very attracted to this forthright girl May and that made him wish to believe in her.  At this moment she excused herself and leaned forward to Harry and whispered to him I have told Julian the whole story Harry it is only right he knows what he is involved with.  He nodded to her smiling "You are right of course we must have no secrets from Julian"