Читать книгу Unconditional Surrender онлайн

22 страница из 62

Someone before Guy had added the minute: Could not a substance be introduced into standard fuel which would provide a characteristic odour of ersatz?

Someone else, an admiral, had added: It was decided (see attached minute) that auxiliary engine should be used only under a strong offshore wind. I consider risk of detection of odour negligible in such circumstances.

Guy more modestly wrote: Noted and approved. Guy Crouchback. Capt. for Brig. Commanding S.S. Forces.... and squeezed past the megalasaurus to carry the file on its way.

"Beaches" was rather a jovial room. It housed an early Victorian locomotive engine, six sailors and a library of naval charts. The reappearance of "Hoopla" was here greeted with ironic applause. Some time back, General Whale had forfeited the kindly sobriquet of "Sprat" and was now known in the lower and more active regions of his command as "Brides-in-the-Bath"; for the reason that all the operations he sponsored seemed to require the extermination of all involved.