"But there's more to this than you understand."
"Like what?"
"Like there was a very good reason for the elimination order," Canidy said.
"Are we back to that?"
Canidy didn't reply. He walked away from the others for a few moments, thinking. Then he came back to the group and turned to Captain Hughson.
"There is avgas here? Nothing 'almost funny' has happened to that?"
"There are twenty-five fifty-five-gallon drums of aviation gasoline, Major," the British officer said.
"Twelve, thirteen hundred American gallons."
"And some kind of a pump?" Canidy pursued.
"Hand pumps," Ferniany said.
"Three of them."
"Are we sure it's clean gas? "Dolan said.
"The tanks are sealed," Ferniany said.
"And there's both metallic filters and chamois."
"You better get on the refueling right away, John," Canidy said.
"At first light tomorrow, after you put Darmstadter through a couple of touch-and-gos, I want you to make for Cairo."
Dolan accepted the order without question, with a nod of his head. But he was curious:
"Why Cairo? And aren't you coming with us?"
"Cairo because we have a pretty good radio link with our station chief there, and no, I can't go back with you."
"We have radio contact with London, Major," the SOE captain said.
Canidy ignored him.
"While you're fueling the plane," he went on, "I'll start encrypting a message for London. You give it, personally, to the station chief. His name is Wilkins, Ernest J. Wilkins, and he's a lot more competent than he looks. Tell him to get it right out, and then you wait there for further orders."
Dolan nodded.
"You'll take the Dyer girl with you," Canidy said.
"If the decision is for you to go on to London, take her -with you. If it isn't, turn her over to Wilkins, and have her put on ice. His ice. Make damned sure he understands that. She is not a prisoner, but I don't want her talking to anybody but you and the station chief."
Dolan nodded again.
"Daylight will be at 0513," he said.
"Say twenty minutes to shoot two or three touch-and-gos, another half an hour to land, top off the tanks, and put the girl aboard. That'll get us out of here at no more than quarter past six."
"Fifteen minutes to shoot two touch-and-gos, and you'll be on your way at half past five. It's fifteen hundred miles, give or take a hundred, from here to Cairo. Presuming no bad head wind, that'd put you into Cairo in six hours, say noon Cairo time."
"Two other presumptions," Dolan said dryly.