Anno Dracula 1918 - The Bloody Red Baron Read Online Free PDF

probably couldn't be much impressed by stunting.
    Winthrop saw what excited the press about aviators. They were lone eagles, not anonymous masses. The only knightly heroes in the gash of bloody mud that stretched across Europe from Belgium to northern Italy.
    Violet light failed as the flare came down. Allard sent up another.
    'What's that?' Winthrop asked.
    Above the SE5a was a winged shape, indistinct in the purple cloud. He heard only Albright's engine. The shape swooped down, more like a huge bird than an aircraft. Albright put a burst up into its belly. From the ground, the gunfire was a tiny sparkling. The shape fastened on to the SE5a and hauled it upwards. Entwined, they climbed into cloud. Allard sent up two more flares, one after the other.
    Major Cundall's face, outlined by the violet glow, was hard.
    Engine drone continued for seconds, then choked into silence. The cloud seemed to part. Something fell, whining. Albright's aeroplane spiralled tightly towards the ground, wind screaming in its wires. One set of wings tore loose. The SE5a ploughed nose-down and crumpled like a box-kite. Winthrop waited for an explosion.
    People ran towards the wreck. The fizzling purple bonfires of fallen flares lit the mess. The tail was snapped off, the remaining wings shredded. Parallel slashes in the canvas looked like clawmarks.
    Winthrop reached the SE5a just after Cundall. They skidded to a halt a few yards away, cautious. The fuel tank might explode. Burning petrol killed vampires as nastily as it did a warm man.
    A crowd ringed the crumpled aircraft. The Lewis gun, barrel still smoking, poked out of twisted metal and fabric. Dravot pressed forward and rooted through the wreck, ripping apart the remains. He found one of the cameras and checked the plate. It was smashed.
    'Where is he?' Bigglesworth asked.
    The cockpit was empty. No one had seen the pilot fall.
    Had Albright taken a parachute? If so, it was against regulations. It was thought parachutes encouraged cowardice. They were issued only to balloon observers.
    'Look,' Allard said.
    Winthrop followed the American's gaze upwards. The last purple faded in the clouds. The flying shape was still faintly visible, weaving this way and that on the currents. It could be some strange sort of batwing kite. Then it was gone.
    'Something's falling,' Ginger said.
    There was a whistling and everyone scattered. It was just his luck to be under a bomb when he had a promotion in the offing. He flung himself on cold grass, covering his head with his arms, thinking briefly of Catriona.
    An object thumped into the field, a dozen yards from the wreck, and did not explode. Winthrop gathered himself and stood up, brushing grass and ice-chips from his coat.
    'Good God,' Cundall said. 'It's Red.'
    The vampires stood in a circle around the fallen man. Winthrop was allowed through to look.
    The twisted thing wore a midnight black Sidcot, ripped open from neck to crotch. A human face was shrivelled on to the skull, lids shrunk from staring eyes. It was a caricature of Albright's solid features, bled white. In the throat was a sucked- dry wound the size of an orange, exposing vertebrae, pale sinew and the underside of the jawbone. The body was insubstantial, a scarecrow of sticks wrapped in thin linen. Albright had been emptied, leeched of all substance.
    Cundall and the others looked up at impenetrable skies. Winthrop fumbled his watch out of his pocket. It must have cracked when he threw himself down, for it had stopped at midnight precisely.

4
     
Grey Eminences
     
    'I would appreciate it if Diogenes could enlighten us about the Château du Malinbois,' said Lord Ruthven, admiring his diamond-shaped fingernails. His expressionless monotone always set Beauregard's teeth grinding.
    Smith-Cumming, who had doffed his disguise, deferred to Beauregard.
    He cleared his throat and began, 'There's a definite air of mystery, Prime Minister. We have Condor Squadron on the problem just now. You're familiar