Bart sighed. “I’m sorry, Diggers,” he said, using a childhood nickname. “It’s not your fault, I’m just blowing my top.”

“Seriously, have you any idea why so many are being shot down? You’ve flown more than a dozen missions. What’s your hunch?”

Bart looked thoughtful. “I wasn’t just sounding off about spies. When we get to Germany, they’re ready for us. They know we’re coming.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Their fighters are in the air, waiting for us. You know how difficult it is for defensive forces to time that right. The fighter squadron has to be scrambled at just the right moment; they must navigate from their airfield to the area where they think we might be, then they have to climb above our ceiling, and when they’ve done all that they have to find us in the moonlight. The whole process takes so much time that we should be able to drop our ordnance and get clear before they catch us. But it isn’t happening that way.”

Digby nodded. Bart’s experience matched that of other pilots he had questioned. He was about to say so when Bart looked up and smiled over Digby’s shoulder. Digby turned to see a Negro in the uniform of a squadron leader. Like Bart, he was young for his rank, and Digby guessed he had received the automatic promotions that came with combat experience-flight lieutenant after twelve sorties, squadron leader after fifteen.

Bart said, “Hello, Charles.”

“You had us all worried, Bartlett. How are you?” The newcomer’s accent was Caribbean overlaid with an Oxbridge drawl.

“I may live, they say.”

With a fingertip, Charles touched the back of Bart’s hand where it emerged from his sling. It was a curiously affectionate gesture, Digby thought. “I’m jolly glad to hear it,” Charles said.

“Charles, meet my brother Digby. Digby, this is Charles Ford. We were together at Trinity until we left to join the air force.”