Читать книгу Hector Trogg's Perfect World - P. A. Booth - Страница 3

Hector Trogg looked from the little that remained of his father’s car to the tall policewoman stood in front of him.

‘It wasn’t me!’ was all he managed to say, although he realised it sounded a little feeble.

‘Well, of course it wasn’t you dear,’ said the policewoman. ‘Eleven-year old boys don’t have access to explosives.’

‘Don’t think he hasn’t asked,’ muttered Kate, Hector’s thirteen-year old sister.

‘There’s another person coming to talk to you and your Dad and Mum, they’ll explain it all,’ said the policewoman kindly.

Kate furrowed her brow and then shook her head.

‘Dad will do his nut; he polishes it almost every day; it’s almost new,’ Kate announced.

‘Do you think Volkswagen will give him a new one, it is under warrant?’ asked Hector.

‘The word is warranty, Hector,’ said Kate, unkindly, ‘And given that one of the wheels is in the farmer’s field next door and one of the seats smashed through Mrs Urwell’s lounge window, we will be hard-pressed to claim that the car was hit by a sudden bout of very aggressive rust.’

Kate was like that; clever, but annoying.

An hour or so later they were all sat in the kitchen, as this was one of the few rooms that had not lost any of its windows. A fat man with a nasal voice was explaining that it was all related to the inheritance. Just two weeks earlier Kate and Hector had been amazed to find out that several million US dollars had been left to them by a distant relative in America called Irvine Deeds. The money was in a trust fund, and they were not allowed to spend any of the fortune until they were twenty-one years old.

It seemed as though the money had been left to Kate and Hector so as to upset all of Irvine Deeds’ closer relatives, who had expected to receive the money themselves. The fat man explained that while Mr Irvine Deeds had gone to great trouble and legal expense to ensure that his will could not be challenged in the courts, he had forgotten to be clear about what would happen if Kate and Hector were both murdered. There were a large number of Mr Deeds’ relatives scattered throughout the world, and any of them might be behind the attack, the fat man explained. From now, until they were twenty-one, they were at great risk.

‘Brilliant!’ exclaimed Hector. ‘This will be really exciting.’

‘No, it won’t!’ complained Kate. ‘We could be killed!’

‘No. Whoever tried to kill us made the bomb beep as we got into the car. I’m sure they are going to give us a sporting chance,’ explained Hector.

The fat man groaned and put his head in his hands. ‘The problem is,’ he explained, ‘your father’s side of the family, I mean Mr Deeds’ relatives, are...’

Hector and Kate looked puzzled.

‘Well, they are diverse,’ the fat man went on.

Hector and Kate continued to look puzzled.

‘They come from a wide variety of backgrounds,’ the fat man tried again.

Hector and Kate looked even more confused.

‘I think what Detective Inspector Smithson is trying to say,’ said Dad with a sigh, ‘is that quite a number of my more distant relatives have not led blameless lives.’

Hector’s look of puzzlement grew even more extreme, but Kate worked it out.

‘They’re crooks,’ Kate explained.

‘I’m afraid so,’ said the Inspector. ‘Big ones, and your trust fund is worth millions, although quite how they really hope to get their hands on it I don’t know.’

Hector’s unshakeable belief that everything would turn out alright meant that he had a good night’s sleep. Kate fell asleep worrying. The following morning things got even better, at least from Hector’s perspective.

The police had raided a flat and discovered more plots to murder them, while a man walking his dog had fallen into a large hole that turned out to be the start of a tunnel someone had been digging under their house. Both Kate and Hector were kept off school for the day in a house full of workmen and police. By 10am Hector had broken the controls on a police car when the officer allowed him to play with the lights and the siren.

Hector was pleased it was the officer who got a good telling off, not him. When the Inspector had finished shouting, he informed Hector, Kate, Mum and Dad that they needed a sudden holiday. Apparently, some of their inheritance could be used for this sort of thing, and so Dad hired a plane and a pilot.

‘Brilliant! I can’t believe it. Dad’s hired a plane! I hope I get to fly it, or at least be the rear gunner,’ Hector said, as he ran around the room in excitement.

‘You don’t hire a plane, Hector, you charter one,’ said Kate in her most annoying voice, ‘and of course there won’t be a rear gunner’s seat.’

Hector did not even bother giving his sister a shove. Today had been brilliant fun, and tomorrow they were going on a surprise holiday, missing school for another day.

The family spent a frustrating evening in two bright, clean but small hotel rooms. The rooms were joined, which did little to ease the sense of confinement. Kate felt as if they had been sent to prison; a feeling heightened by the presence of two armed police officers in the corridor. For Hector, this just added to the excitement.

Hector’s next day was even better, because the plane did have a rear gun, as well as guns at the side. Kate looked sour; annoyed that her brother had been correct. Mum and Dad looked flabbergasted. Mum kept asking the pilot how old the plane was, while Dad just looked dumbfounded at the propellers attached to the giant engines. Hector suspected that he had not yet noticed the guns.

The pilot explained that the plane was usually just flown in air shows, except for a recent trip to Africa for something more exciting. The charter company was really sorry, but the normal plane had been grounded and this was all they had.

‘We cannot fly in that,’ said Dad, after a very long look at the aircraft.

‘I am very sorry,’ said the pilot waving some paperwork, ‘but it is airworthy. It’s legal.’

‘Is it safe?’ Mum asked.

‘I think so,’ the pilot declared confidently, ‘although if you want to wait until the weekend I’m sure we can sort out something else.’

Dad turned to the two police officers, both of whom looked as bewildered as he felt.

‘We were told to get you here safely,’ said the smaller of the two officers, ‘I can’t say I expected to have to make decisions about aircraft. It does look old.’

‘True,’ said the other officer, ‘but certificates of airworthiness are not easy to get for old planes. It will have been very well maintained. Plus, these planes safely transported lots of bomber crews. Personally, I’d give it a go. It’ll be a flight to remember.’

‘There has got to be a risk to waiting for another plane,’ the smaller officer added.

Once the luggage was aboard, the engines spluttered and then roared. The plane did not really take off. It rattled along at increasing speed until it ran out of runway and a slight dip in the land left the aircraft without any other options.

Kate and Hector were used to the boredom of long flights, but this one was different. It was cold, very noisy, and in places rather grubby. However, it was anything but dull. They were sat amongst their luggage, and so both got out warmer clothing. Mum reluctantly let them explore, and it did not take them long to discover that there was no kitchen, drinks or food. There was no toilet either. There were parachutes, however, together with extra ammunition for the guns. Hector and Kate took one of the parachutes back to show Mum and Dad.

Kate discovered there was a hatch at the back of the aircraft you could open. She could have jumped straight out. She was sure she and Hector would never have been allowed to explore if Mum or Dad had known about the hatch.

Hector spent considerable time aiming the rear gun at imaginary aircraft. He reluctantly allowed Kate smaller turns, and they both had fun yelling ‘bandits at two o’clock’, aiming just in front of the enemy plane, and watching the pretend fighter go down in flames.

Kate discovered how to load the gun, and even where the safety catch was. Hector was very keen to fire the gun for real. Kate thought firing live ammunition was a mistake, and this eventually led to an argument. They both retreated back to Mum and Dad in a sulky silence.

Some time later Dad put down his book and mentioned that he needed the bathroom. Kate told him about the hatch, and this led to a spirited debate as to whether Kate and Hector should have ever been allowed to explore. A few minutes passed before Dad returned from the hatch saying that it was the most dangerous toilet he had ever visited.

‘Show me these guns,’ said Dad, beckoning Kate and Hector.

Mum sat in the cold and noise with her newspaper, trying to remain as warm as possible. They were a long way into the flight, and she felt as if her body temperature had lost a degree with each passing hour.

Her mind turned to the guns. Aircraft like this were used for displays, but she was sure they would not have ammunition for the guns. The more Mum thought about it the more uneasy she felt. Why take an aircraft like this on a huge trip to Africa? As she tried to imagine possible scenarios the only one that seemed realistic was that it had been used for something illegal. The pride the pilot had in the aircraft made her suspect that he had been the one to fly it down to Africa.

‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire,’ said Mum, summarising her worries that they were now in a bad situation. Dad, Hector and Kate had returned from the rear gun and were sat around among the bags.

‘I think it will be fine,’ said Hector, ‘It’s still in the air. It hasn’t crashed or caught fire yet.’

‘Thank you for those thoughts Hector,’ said Dad, although he did not sound grateful at all.

‘At the very least this is a rather odd plane charter company,’ Mum went on, ‘Providing an aircraft as old as this, and one with ammunition is extraordinary. And what where they doing flying something like this to Africa?’

‘Well, we’re in the air now. We just have to hope it all goes well,’ Kate said, ‘I can’t see what else we can do.’

Kate was about to continue, but found her attention drawn to Hector, who was looking intently out of a window. Kate got up to look as well. In the distance behind them there appeared to be aircraft.

There was a bang from the front of the aircraft as the pilot emerged from the cockpit.

‘Ahh, good,’ said Dad, ‘I have a few concerns. There seems to be ammunition for the guns.’

The pilot glared at Dad and then looked down.

‘I don’t ask about things like that in case I don’t like the answer,’ replied the pilot in a loud voice as he walked down the plane towards them.

‘Hang on,’ said Hector, ‘aren’t you supposed to be flying the plane?’

‘Yes, I am. Sorry,’ said the pilot as he picked up a parachute, ‘but there are some fighters on our tail.’

‘How the hell did we attract the attention of the Air Force?’ Dad yelled, starting to get angry, but noticing that the pilot was now stood by the door ready to leave.

‘It’s not the Air Force. They’re very old planes. They’re freelancers, and I suspect they’ve been stolen from collectors,’ said the pilot as he opened the door and the sound of rushing wind grew louder.

‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ exclaimed Mum.

‘Please don’t give me the whole “this cannot be happening to me” thing,’ said the pilot unkindly, as he turned to jump.

‘I don’t think you should do that!’ shouted Hector.

‘Why ever not?’ grinned the pilot with an evil look on his face as he turned back to face everyone, ‘Too young to die are you? Too frightened to use a adult parachute because it will undoubtedly kill you? Or is it just not fair? Well, well...why not?’ The pilot jumped.

‘It’s because that’s the parachute Kate and I have been playing with,’ said Hector to the empty space.

Dad partly closed the door and they all watched the pilot fall as he disappeared as a speck behind them.

The pilot confidently pulled the rip cord, and was at first confused to see a series of knots and then the remains of a sticky sweet appear, followed by a ribbon tied in a neat bow. The horror and true seriousness of the situation hit him. He scrambled madly for the reserve chute finding only scraps of material, some of which had been cut into animal shapes. The pilot was still scrambling madly when he disappeared from view. His parachute did not appear. He was just a dot, plummeting downwards.

‘Can I fly the plane?’ asked Hector.

‘No!’ said Kate.

‘It’s not up to you,’ retorted Hector, ‘I’ve flown lots of missions on my computer.’

‘Yes, and they all end up with your plane in a heap of flaming wreckage,’ said Kate.

‘What about the parachutes?’ Mum asked, looking at Dad, who seemed horror-struck.

‘I think we’ll die. We’ve no idea what to do. Maybe adult parachutes will flip over if there is only a child’s weight. I just don’t know.’

‘We could strap Kate and Hector into the same parachute,’ Mum suggested.

‘They might shoot us as we drift down,’ said Kate.

‘I think we’ll be plummeting too quickly to shoot,’ said Dad, ‘It requires training. We’ve just seen the pilot fall to his death. We could be next.’

Just then there were loud bangs as bullets hit the plane.

‘You’re in charge of the rear guns, I’ll fly,’ shouted Mum, as she pushed Dad towards the rear of the plane, and set off for the cockpit herself.

Kate and Hector each went to the guns at the side. Kate immediately took aim and let off a few rounds. All of their earlier play suddenly had a purpose. She could see two propeller type planes, and a single jet she thought was called a Hawk.

‘Mine’s broken,’ said Hector, ‘it won’t work,’ and for the first time he felt a panic rising in his throat. Dad’s gun had not fired a round either.

‘You need this catch to be here,’ explained Kate pointing to the side of the gun. She then ran to the back of the aircraft to help Dad, just as a volley of bullets ripped a hole in the fuselage. Next, Kate ran to the front of the plane to tell Mum to fly in circles.

‘We can shoot them with the side and rear guns, but it is harder for them because they have to line us up.’ yelled Kate.

Hector could not help but feel a certain admiration for his sister. Kate was good in a crisis, even if she did always take the biggest slice of cake when allowed anything more than a nanosecond’s head start.

Soon there was a regular rattle of all three guns. Kate was careful and determined, while Hector was having the time of his life firing anywhere. He could not be sure what sort of planes the two propellor aircraft were, but as far as he was concerned they had to be Messerschmitts. He should have been starting his maths lesson at school, sitting next to pooty Collins, but instead he was in an aerial dog fight to the death with two Messerschmitts and a jet fighter. Their plane veered wildly, the guns rattled, there were explosions as bullets hit their aircraft, and a small fire had started near the cockpit. As far as Hector was concerned, this was as exciting as life could ever be.

Aiming was easier than Kate and Hector had expected, but the problem was that the plane kept changing direction. Sometimes there was a larger, deeper rattle, and it sounded as though Mum had found the forward guns. The lights kept going on and off, and Hector thought it was because the electrics had been hit. Kate guessed that it was because Mum did not know which buttons did what. Her suspicions were confirmed when the radio was turned on full and they were all blasted with hits from the sixties.

As the Beatles sang ‘All you need is love’ at full volume, Dad and Hector had their first real success, and the jet fighter exploded. Yet, even the deafening radio could not drown out the thuds and explosions as the rounds from the other two fighter aircraft hit. There was now a growing hole in the fuselage next to Kate, and as Hector glanced up and down he could see other holes. It was only a matter of time before the two fighters either hit them or something vital in the aircraft. Things were getting desperate. Either they were not hitting the remaining two fighters, or their bullets were not enough to do any real damage. The two fighters were having problems lining them up as Mum flew this way and that, but sooner or later they would succeed.

In addition to the endless chorus of ‘All you need is love,’ the thud and bang of bullets, the roar of the engines and the increasing wind noise as yet more holes appeared everywhere, there was now a regular deep thud that shook the whole aircraft. Either something was seriously wrong, or Mum was lowering and raising the wheels and other bits of undercarriage as she attempted to turn the radio off. Suddenly they turned sharply to port and started losing height and speed. Whatever criticisms they might make of Mum’s flying, they had to admit she was difficult to anticipate. Then Mum came running out of the cockpit.

‘Kate dear,’ she yelled, ‘would you like to have a go. I seem to have turned one of the engines off.’

Hector took his chance and dashed forward. He was going to fly the plane. This was his opportunity. He ran forward just as a hail of bullets tore fresh holes in the walls, floor and roof of the middle portion of the plane. Very soon, Hector thought, it will all be portions; small, chopped-up bits of plane falling from the sky.

Hector had just got himself into the seat and pulled back on the stick when bullets hit the cockpit sending a frightening spray of debris everywhere. He pushed the working engine to full throttle and compensated for the yaw with the rudder. Yet, they were still going down. Just then Kate arrived and began looking at the buttons. She turned the radio off, withdrew the undercarriage into the plane and was soon working on getting the port engine started again.

‘I’m going to weave about,’ yelled Hector, just as he pushed the stick forward and the plane lurched down.

‘Got it,’ yelled Kate, and the port engine roared back into life.

‘Brilliant Hector,’ Kate yelled as Hector pulled the plane sharply up, and they saw the bullets whistle underneath the aircraft, ‘I’m off to help Mum.'

Mum had found Dad knocked unconscious, and worse than that, they were running out of ammunition. Mum, it seemed, had fired both side guns madly until all the ammunition was spent. Only the rear gun had a few bullets left, and that was only because the gun had become too hot to use. The only good news was that one of the pursuing fighters had part of a wing missing, and seemed to be weaving, as if the pilot did not have full control.

Kate slipped into the rear gunner’s seat and was pleased to find that the gun had cooled down. She noticed the large hole in the very rear of the plane. Kate took aim at the undamaged fighter. She had a calm, steel-like determination as she fired, but the fighter pilot had seen it coming and pulled up sharply, taking him out of the line of fire, and moving him further back from them. The damaged fighter had disappeared, but the remaining pilot seemed determined.

Kate fired the smallest burst she could manage just as the fighter pulled to the right. She quickly aimed a fraction in front of the fighter and fired a longer burst, but the pilot had pushed the stick forward, in a manoeuvre that made Kate think he must have his stomach in his mouth. She waited until he brought his guns into line and then fired again. So close! So close!

Kate decided to wait. He had to line up again and she would get him eventually. Now she understood what she had to do; just wait until he was lining up, trying to keep his aircraft straight and level. He dodged and pulled left and then right. Finally, he lined them up. Kate fired a longer burst, but it was soon over. The long burst turned out to be a very short burst. The ammunition was spent. The fighter was still in the air.

‘That’s it! We’ve no more ammunition,’ Kate yelled to her mother, who was tending to Dad as he lay on the floor. She turned to see the remaining fighter moving closer in. Hector was still weaving about, but it was a big plane. Without the fire from the rear and side guns to keep the last fighter at bay there was nothing to stop it getting close and finishing them all in a hail of bullets.

‘The parachutes, the parachutes!’ yelled Mum.

Kate grabbed a parachute, pushed it into the hole at the very end of the plane and let it fall as she held onto the harness and pulled the rip cord. It billowed it out and was ripped from her hands, becoming a sudden frightening wall the pursuing fighter had to avoid. Kate rushed to get the next parachute. She pushed it into the hole again, held on to the harness and waited for the fighter to line them up once more. Just as the fighter swung into a direct line with them Kate pulled the rip cord and the parachute expanded, before being ripped from her hands once more. Again, it billowed out into a sudden flapping wall the fighter had to turn hard to miss.

It was a brilliant bit of innovative thinking; superb adaption; magnificent make do. Yet, Kate knew that it would work only as long as there was a ready supply of parachutes. Time was running out. Their last hope was fading. If only Hector could push the plane into a suicidal dive and yet pull out just in time to land safely then all would be well. Yet, the plane’s wings simply would not manage. They could not out-dive a fighter. The wings could not pull the plane out of a vertical dive when they had so many holes in them.

Kate felt a hot wave of panic. She had to do something different, but she also had to keep pushing the parachutes out of the hole at the end of the plane. What she needed was a smart bomb like the ones in the computer games, but they did not exist; they were fantasy. As Kate pushed the last parachute into the ragged hole at the end of the plane she felt a sense of hopelessness. They were not going to make it. The fighter pilot was too clever; he knew what he was doing; he knew they had run out of ammunition; he was waiting for the right moment to fire a final volley of bullets into their stricken plane and send them all spinning to their deaths.

As the last parachute exploded out into a fragile but, for the fighter pilot, huge advancing wall, Kate huddled down, clutching the side of the aircraft. The plane pulled up; it rose and slowed. Then it rolled to starboard and then pitched down, leaving Kate feeling as though her stomach was trying to get out through her throat. Kate knew Hector was trying everything. He knew things were desperate. He would have guessed that the ammunition had run out, if only because of the absence of a reassuring rattle of return fire whenever the fighter’s shots ricocheted through the plane.

Then it happened; the final rattle of gunfire that would destroy the plane, and destroy them all. The plane lurched upwards and slowed. There was a huge crunch as the plane began to disintegrate. The rear of the aircraft where Kate clung huddled partly exploded, and then buckled and groaned. Yet, to Kate’s surprise she was not spinning down. She could not hear the crunch and splinter of the plane as it continued to fall apart. There were no bullets spraying in, just the sound of the engines and the wind. Even stranger, Hector was yelling in triumph.

‘What happened?’ yelled Kate.

‘I think Hector managed to reverse the plane into the fighter,’ Mum yelled back.

‘You can’t reverse a plane,’ shouted Kate.

Yet that was exactly what Hector had managed to do. He was trying to avoid the fighter, but by pulling up sharply he had slowed the large plane. The fighter had simply run into the back of them.

‘I think the fighter crashed into the rear of our plane,’ yelled Kate.

‘Yes,’ shouted Mum, ‘radical braking. Your father has managed to get several cars to run into the back of our car at roundabouts. It’s probably genetic.’

‘Is Dad OK?’ Kate asked. It seemed strange, but when death seemed imminent, even her father laid in her mother’s arms was something she could ignore. Now she was worried.

‘He has muttered a few things. I think he’s just hit his head.’

‘Kate dear,’ shouted Mum after a pause, ‘things don’t look too good. When I said parachutes I was rather hoping we would parachute to safety. It never occurred to me that you’d use them as a weapon. Are there any left?’

Kate just shook her head. Their problems were definitely not over. One engine was on fire and the other was leaving a dark trail of smoke across the sky. Added to this, Kate had just noticed that there were other planes around them. She raced forward to the cockpit. The best place for her now was at Hector’s side.

Hector, rather annoyingly, was in a very good mood.

‘It’s a Typhoon,’ he explained.

‘What?’ questioned Kate.

‘It’s a Royal Air Force plane,’ said Hector, pointing to the plane on the starboard side. ‘Fly by wire, carbon fibre.’

Hector’s wild unfettered enthusiasm and simple joy at being near a Royal Air Force vacuum cleaner, that by some accident of design could fly, left Kate feeling exasperated.

‘And that one,’ said Hector, pointing to their port side, ‘is another type of jet fighter, but it’s not British. I think it’s american. It might be a Raptor. They’ve got vectored thrust. That means the power is directed.’

‘Hector,’ shouted Kate, ‘why is this good?’

‘I think they’re here to protect us,’ explained Hector. He went on to demonstrate his enthusiasm by waving wildly to both of the pilots. As far as Kate could see they were waving back.

‘You don’t think they’re a bit late,’ said Kate, ‘in case you hadn’t noticed the last plane that was trying to shoot us out of the sky was rammed by the highly dangerous pilot I’m sitting next to. It wasn’t shot down by those two, and the other one that was trying to kill us might come back.’

‘No,’ said Hector, still wildly cheerful, ‘that old fighter would never dare attack with these two jets near us.’

This was undoubtedly true. Unfortunately, there was very little either of the planes could do to help them stay in the air. They were losing height; the fire in the starboard engine was getting worse and spreading down the wing. When Kate looked at the starboard wing she could see that quite a bit of it was missing.

The good news was that all of the port wing was still there, even if there were quite a few holes ripped in it. The even better news was that Kate could see that the two jet fighters were leading them to an airfield. It had bright lights and what looked like a lot of fire engines judging by the blue and red flashing lights.

‘Oh no,’ thought Kate, ‘Hector loves fire engines, he’ll probably die of happiness before he lands the plane.’

As they neared the airfield Kate could see the roads surrounding them were crammed with cars and people. They had all stopped to watch their stricken, flaming aircraft attempt its desperate landing.

Kate spent the next few seconds looking over the controls. She tried to ignore the fact that the starboard engine was now fully alight and had stopped spinning completely. She decided to lower the landing gear early so that if she got it wrong she would have time for another attempt. She did not think there was any possibility that Hector might turn the aircraft around for a second attempt at landing. They only had one chance!

Nothing happened. Kate knew she picked the correct controls because she had raised the landing gear earlier after her mother’s eccentric time in the cockpit. Kate moved the switch to lift the landing gear up and then pressed the switch down again.

‘Come on,’ shouted Kate in frustration, as she desperately waggled the switch back and forth.

Kate looked around the cockpit at the holes, tattered cloth, smashed glass and shattered metal, and decided that her attempts were futile.

Hector had seen the problem and reassured Kate that he landed his plane in the computer game without any landing gear lots of times. At first this had simply been because he forgot to put the landing gear down, but later he landed without landing gear just because it was fun. The main thing, he explained to her, was not to hit the ground too hard, but to skid along. A tumble and spin on the ground was always something that lost you points.

‘Well,’ said Kate, ‘at least if you crash this you won’t lose any points. Your head may no longer be connected to your bottom via the middle part of your body, but at least your score on the computer game won’t go down.’

Hector spotted the sarcasm but ignored it. This was brilliant; this was better than the best daydream he had ever had; better even than the ones in religious education lessons. He was about to crash land a real plane and he was unsure whether to concentrate on the controls and the task at hand, or whether to carry on trying to count fire engines.

‘Hector,’ yelled Kate, ‘you’re looking at the fire engines. Concentrate on landing the plane you buffoon. If I live, and I have all my limbs, I’ll buy you a really big model fire engine. And in case you haven’t noticed the port engine is now on fire as well.’

‘Oh great!’ exclaimed Hector, as visions of a brand new favourite toy swam the into view in his mind’s eye, alongside the real vision of the rapidly approaching runway. He snapped back into reality because the plane yawed to one side as Kate lowered the flaps. Not all of the flaps worked, and Hector had to stretch to reach the pedals for the rudder.

The concrete was racing below. It looked hard and unforgiving. There were flashing blue lights all around as the fire engines raced along beside them.

The landing was brutal, but relatively quick. Hector flew along the runway for quite some way before making contact. He did not stall the plane, but he certainly made it lose a lot of its speed before it finally made contact with the concrete runway. There was a crunch as they hit the ground, followed by a horrible deafening scraping noise that filled the whole aircraft.

‘See,’ said Hector cheerfully as the fuselage scraped to a halt on the runway concrete, ‘I said we’d survive.’

‘Yes,’ said Kate, ‘and I said you always land in a heap of flaming wreckage, and you have.’

White spray filled the air as the fire engines poured foam on the burning wings. Men were suddenly breaking into the aircraft. Kate and Hector were quickly wrapped in fireproof blankets and carried to waiting ambulances.

‘Who are you? Where are we?’ asked Kate, looking round for Mum and Dad. The men did not seem to understand her. Hector realised that they did not speak English, and so decided to speak slowly and loudly.

‘Do - you - have - any - cakes?’ he yelled at them.

Minutes later Kate and Hector found themselves in a large airport building, in a strange land, with hostile natives, no real law, and nothing sensible to eat. They had landed in France.

Dad was taken off to hospital in an ambulance with Mum. Kate and Hector were assured that it was just a precaution.

It was two hours later when, in front of an impromptu gathering of several hundred people, Kate and Hector had been presented with medals. Hector repeatedly said that he would swap the medal for a ride in one of the fire engines, but either the local French dignitaries did not understand him or they did not believe him.

The ceremony went on for about fifteen minutes, which in Hector’s view was approximately fourteen minutes too long. He liked the applause and congratulation, but he did not like the speeches. Kate had to endure an annoying Frenchman who kept patting her on the head. Added to this Hector kept hissing threats about what he would do if his model fire engine did not turn up soon.

It was not until almost 9 o’clock that night that they heard that Mum and Dad were safe and well. Dad had received a nasty blow to the head, and the hospital had decided to keep him in for observation.

They also heard from Inspector Smithson. His message was that a special security nanny would be arriving to keep them safe.