Red Hawk Rising

he was eating and his head fell back as he drifted into unconsciousness. Looking at his watch, the one who had got the tea went forward and looked into the cab of Eddy’s vehicle. He looked back with a nod to his companion who came forward and they got Eddy out of the cab and took him back to the van and put him in the passenger seat. A driver of a lorry asked what was wrong and was told that the driver had taken ill and they would take him in to see a doctor. The lorry driver nodded and went about his business. The man who had got the tea pulled out of the line and drove towards Sleaford. The other of the two men climbed into the cab of the tractor/loader and hit the starter button. The starter motor spun a few times before the engine fired. He then put the vehicle into gear and followed the van towards Sleaford. Ten minutes later the van, followed by the tractor/loader, turned into the same warehouse that Colonel Kharkov had been driven into. The warehouse doors were closed behind them and locked.

At Davis Aviation, the MI5 man, Hamilton, was finishing his security checks on personnel and the security measures taken to protect the launcher. Fortunately, there were no sub-contractors involved with supplying any of the parts except for the command module. This was supplied by Argonaut Industries and he was confident that there would be no problems there. Hamilton had picked up on a couple of weak spots in the system and these were in the stores area. He had also had discussions with the RAF team from 28 JSTU and heard their views on security there. After a discussion with management the necessary changes were being implemented. He would travel up to Coventry that afternoon, driving on the new M1 Motorway and then the A46 into Coventry. By doing so he felt that he would be able to have an early start in the morning. It was now 1.00 p.m. and he should be able to get away before 3.00 p.m. Hamilton headed for the boardroom where the senior management were served lunch. He had been invited to join them. This would be an opportunity to discuss the approved security changes with them and deal with any queries.

At RAF West Sanby, the JSTU personnel were walking back to their hangar after the lunch break. They were keenly expecting the arrival of the tractor/loader that afternoon. Andy was heading down to the radar unit. Initial runs using the generator were causing problems. The radar was using the recently invented transistors instead of valves and the power surges were causing banks of them to blow. This problem had not been experienced at the factory. Andy needed to get the details and feed them into the defect analysis system. It was a long walk from the barrack block to the radar site and he felt that it was good exercise. After that he would have to head back to the office and pick up his travel warrant to go down to Luton. Accommodation had been booked for him at a guesthouse near to the Davis Aviation factory. By 2.30 p.m. he was climbing into the JSTU Landrover to be driven to the railway station in Grimsby. Flight Lieutenant Gaskin wanted Corporal Hill to get this side of the work completed before the whole unit assembled at RAF West Sanby the following week. Corporal ‘Andy Hill had already talked to the team on the MLT that morning and set up the defect analysis cards for it. The journey into Grimsby was uneventful and Andy headed to the ticket office to change his travel warrant for a ticket to Luton. The diesel railcar pulled in to the platform and he found a seat toward the rear of the carriage so that he could watch the passengers. At Retford, Andy changed trains for a ‘stopping’ train down the main line. It was nearly two hours to Luton. When he alighted from the train there was a RAF corporal standing on the platform looking at the alighting passengers. He saw Andy and walked towards him. “Corporal Hill?” he asked of Andy. Andy nodded and gave an affirmative. “Good. I’ll give you a lift up to the guest house. My name is Jim Payne.”

“Thanks,” said Andy. “Good to meet you.” They headed out of the station to a RAF Landrover parked nearby, unaware of the problem developing at West Sanby.

It was 18.00 hours and an alert had been put out for the MLT which had not arrived. At 16.00 hours, Flight Lieutenant Gaskin had checked with the management at Jennings Engineering and had been assured of the time of the vehicle’s departure. They had also given him the route it was expected to travel. At 17.00 hours Gaskin telephoned the unit CO and advised him of the situation. He told Gaskin to get the MLT team to take a Landrover and drive down the route to see if the vehicle was in difficulties. Jennings Engineering also sent a team out to follow the route from Coventry. The RAF team would drive until dark and then return to RAF West Sanby. They drove through Louth and down to Horncastle, checking garages and lay-bys as then went. Before they reached Coningsby, darkness closed in and the sergeant told his driver to turn back. He thought that it would have been good to stay at RAF Coningsby the night and continue in the morning but given the nature of the JSTU it was not appropriate. Similarly, the Jennings team reached Melton Mowbray as darkness fell. They booked into a private hotel for the night, ready to continue the search in the morning. After booking in, the two men headed out to find a cafe and get a meal. Passing a garage on the main road that was still open, the foreman decided to ask if