The Challenging Heights Read Online Free PDF Page A

you. Lots of non-comfort.’
    ‘Pity we can’t get him to join us.’
    ‘Fat chance of that. I expect he’s got all his anchors out to make sure nobody moves him far from London.’
    It was Dicken’s turn to smile. ‘It would be a triumph if we could get him here.’
    ‘Perhaps we should bend our minds to that end. Nothing vicious, mean or vengeful. Just something to take that smug look off his face.’
    They were still enjoying the sunshine when it dawned on them that the trolley they were sitting on had started vibrating and that the vibration was coming from the rails beneath, and finally that the Bolshevik horsemen had disappeared not because they had grown tired of the chase but because there was a train approaching and they were in the way and likely to derail it.
    ‘Good God,’ Hatto yelled. ‘The bloody thing’ll flatten us!’
    As they struggled in a panic to lever the trolley from the rails, they heard the shriek of an engine whistle and the engine hurtled at full speed round the bend towards them. Alongside the driver, his moustache bristling with ferocity and clutching a revolver as big as a cannon, was Orr coming to their rescue. The truck behind was filled with men with rifles.
     
    They had good reason to celebrate that night because news had come in that the White Russian armies were closing in and the Bolsheviks were on the run everywhere.
    ‘At the moment,’ Orr said, gesturing at the map, ‘General Denikin’s heading up from South Russia, General Kolchak’s heading west from Siberia, another force is pushing down from Archangel, and there’s a force here under a chap called Yudenitch who’s aiming for Petrograd. The idea’s to meet in Moscow and restore the status to quo so that Europe will be freed from the Red menace for ever and ever, amen.’ He paused, sucked at his pipe for a while and studied the map, measuring the distances in hands’ breadths. ‘I hope they pull it off,’ he added. ‘Because if the Siberian lot really do manage to join the Archangel lot it’ll only be at the expense of a lot of hard slogging, and that crowd at Archangel are in no state to restore ’em. All this victory talk needs taking with a pinch of salt because nothing’s what it seems out here, and to make matters worse, they all speak some bloody awful Slav language no one’s ever heard of, let alone studied at school.’
    Hatto glanced at Dicken and smiled. ‘What we really need here, sir,’ he observed cheerfully, ‘is an officer who’s a good linguist.’
    ‘I can imagine them sending us one,’ Orr growled.
    ‘Oh, they would, sir,’ Hatto said. ‘Especially if this chap, Ulmanis, who’s running the show here, requested it. He needs a good liaison officer. After all he’s head of the Provisional Government.’
    ‘And at the moment hiding from von der Goltz who’s behaving as if he’s commanding an army of occupation.’
    ‘All the same, sir, if we get his signature on the request they’d have to take notice of it in London.’
    Orr wasn’t convinced. ‘We’d probably get some wet type from the Foreign Office with a face like a hen’s arse.’
    ‘Then we should request someone by name, sir, and get Ulmanis to ask especially for him. Make it seem important. Have him claim he’s heard of him and wants him very particularly. If it becomes a political thing they can’t refuse.’
    Orr scowled. ‘Who would he want?’
    ‘There’s a Squadron Leader Diplock, sir. He was studying for a degree, specialising in European languages when the war broke out. Surely what they speak here’s European. He’s very good, sir. He also speaks French, German and Italian. There’s nothing he enjoys more than a job like this. What’s more, sir–’ Hatto smiled ‘–he’s the chap who was responsible for sending me here – probably you, too, if the truth were known.’
    Orr’s head jerked round. ‘He is, is he?’ he said. ‘Very well then, Willie, let the bugger have a taste of his own