Nine

Holly had to be practically dragged away.

“Come on. It’s not as if you’ll never see him again. You can still talk to him for Heaven sake.”

Holly eventually agreed this was so. She dithered, so Lisa sent her a picture of a Holly kissing a Victor. That did the trick. Holly reached up and kissed him. Then she grinned at him, turned, and ran to join us.

“But Holly ...” I ‘heard’ him call.

“Victor, don’t worry. I’m not going out of your life. Right now you have to work and I have to go home and do homework and stuff. I’ll talk to you this evening when I’ve persuaded the other two not to listen in.”

As we made our way out of the lab, Lisa said, “Well, how was your day Holly?”

“Mm. Brilliant. But I might have a problem, Lisa.”

“The nature of this tiny and obviously insignificant problem?”

“Vic is twenty one and I’m not quite eighteen.”

“Ah. One of those kinds of problems. I assume you’re not planning on dragging him into a bedroom quite yet?”

“Well ... no. I suppose not.”

“You suppose not? Holly Merrick! What happened to the shy retiring Holly who complained that she was too young for the stuff Jody and I might get up to?”

“She’s maybe taking a gap-year. She may never come back.”

“So. Take it gently. From what I felt when we linked, he’s a nice boy who doesn’t sound like the type to pressure you.”

“Sounds like Holly’ll pressure him,” I grinned.

“Don’t be silly Jody. The fact she’s talking about it at all means she probably won’t - or at least will think about it more than once.”

“There’s no problem with being attracted to an older boy,” I said. “Just got to watch out for consequences. Besides, he’s hardly Hugh Hefner now is he?”

Then I had to explain about the millionaire owner of Playboy, who’s older that God but still manages to date girls barely out of their teens.

Holly had cheated. She’d got her mum to collect her from the lab. Mrs. Merrick took pity on us and ran Lisa and I home as well. Our parents are so good to us - all of them.

“Hi Mum. Me. Home again.”

“Hello dear. Good day? What did the lab have to say?”

“Oh, they just listened in incredulous silence as usual. Apparently Precogs are usually found in dreams. Where we go sometimes is a dream so I suppose that explains it - sort of.”

“Don’t you find it’s helpful to talk to people about what happens? And I don’t mean Lisa or Holly or your dad and me.”

“Yes, Mum. It does. We can tell the lab people stuff we wouldn’t maybe tell you and Dad.” I knew that. We had done - more than once.

“Holly might have a love-interest in her life,” I grinned. I went on to tell Mum all about Victor. Mum didn’t appear to have a problem with the difference in ages. Then I remembered, Dad is about six years older than Mum. They knew all about it. Mm. Maybe a good source of information and possible help if Holly got stressed.

Tuesday. A normal day at school. We’d spent some time the previous evening discovering that we could ignore conversations between the other pair of us, in this particular case the pair being Holly and Victor.

At the moment the experience was sufficiently new for it to take up a lot of Holly’s attention. That would change. Mike and I ‘talked’ from time to time, not what you’d call a lot, but we both knew we were there for each other. Mike had offered encouragement when we had to deal with Lisa’s vision of disaster. I also knew that Brian and Lisa worked in much the same way. I’d wait to see what happened with Holly and Victor.

Schoolwork seemed as easy as usual. Lisa and I were working towards exams. Although a year younger, Holly was too. She was going to take some exams early and ‘bank’ the results - assuming success of course - for consideration at a later date. Predictably, these were subjects such as Maths and Science. A good idea really - meant she could concentrate on her weaker subjects. When I thought about it, I realised - what weaker subjects? Holly didn’t have any, not really.

The week passed with little to excite us. Holly and Victor seemed to be working quite well. Lisa and I were pleased for both of them. It seemed we might be in for a quiet period. Silly girl Jody! Served me right for even thinking it. Friday lunchtime saw a text on Lisa’s mobile phone.

“It’s from Beth,” she ‘said’, using telepathy so Holly could ‘hear’ as well. “Wants me to ring.” She did this.

“Hi Beth, it’s Lisa. Got a text.”

Holly and I listened in to the reply. “Mm. I sent a text because I know you can’t have your phones on during lessons.”

“What’s up anyway?” asked Lisa. “Something must be or you wouldn’t want to speak fairly urgently.”

“Yes, well. It seems the Ministry of Defence have heard about you fixing the hospital generator. They want to know if you could fix a nuclear submarine the same way.”

“A what?” said Lisa. “A nuclear submarine?”

“Apparently so,” said Beth. “They won’t give details but I assume it means doing something to bits of it they can’t normally get to.”

“It’ll be something inside the reactor or similar,” ‘said’ Holly.

“We should be able to,” I ‘said’.

“You should be, you mean”, grinned Holly.

“Enough chatter,” ‘said’ Lisa, obviously in Director mode. “We up for this or not?”

“Go for it,” I ‘said’. “Been far too quiet recently.”

“Holly?”

“Yep, why not.”

Beth had been waiting. “I assume the pause is because you were discussing it?”

“Mm,” said Lisa. “We’re on it. Start typing out the invoice. Who d’we contact?”

Beth laughed. “Invoice indeed. You do that after the job, not before. Leave that to me. Anyway, I’ll get the Ministry to ring you after school. That ok? They need the job doing over the weekend.”

When Lisa and Beth rang off, I ‘said’, “Weekend? What’s a weekend? We work harder on Saturday and Sunday that we do during the week!”

“Look at it this way,” ‘said’ Lisa. “Means we don’t miss school and stuff like that. More important is the fact that we can keep quiet about what it is we do. Can’t do that if we have days and days off school.”

Holly and I both had to agree with that. Lisa had a point.

Naturally we didn’t need to be together when the phone rang after school. Holly was at home but Lisa and I were at Lisa’s. Also naturally, Lisa answered the phone to the unknown number that appeared in the phone’s display.

“Lisa Chandler. What can I do for you?”

“Ah, Miss Chandler. I understand you may be able to help us with a problem we have with one of our submarines?”

“Yes, we think so. Do you have details?”

“We’d rather not discuss this over the telephone. The boat is in a - sensitive - area. Can you come here? To London?”

“Make them come to us,” ‘said’ Holly.

“Think we’ll need transport to wherever the sub is,” I ‘said’. “Make them involve Peter and we can all meet at the base.”

Lisa didn’t ‘say’ anything, just sent us a picture of herself nodding agreement as she spoke out loud down the telephone. “We’d rather not come all the way to London. Assuming we’ll need transport, why don’t you involve the CO at the local airbase, your people go there, we go there, and that way all interested parties are in one place. Is that acceptable?

“Capital. I’ll arrange it at once. Our people will travel up for first thing in the morning. Can you be available?”

“Yes. We’ll check with Peter - sorry - the CO at the base - and be there at the appropriate time.”

“Thank you Miss Chandler,” and the voice at the other end of the phone was gone.

“Now what have we let ourselves in for?” ‘grinned’ Holly.

“Should be a hoot,” I ‘said’. “A submarine full of hunky fellows, all to ourselves.”

“Jody!”

“Ok, ok. Holly can be excused. All the more for Lisa and me.”

“Jody!”

“Sorry, sorry. Don’t mean it. You know I don’t. You’re both laughing anyway, I can feel you.”

“Enough already,” ‘said’ Lisa. “Need to ring Peter and tell him what’s going on.”

She did this. After that it was time for food. I’m automatically invited for tea if I’m at Lisa’s at tea-time, just as she is if she’s with me. That applied to Holly as well of course, but that didn’t happen as often, what with Holly living at the other side of the town.

Saturday. We hit the airbase early. Then managed to hit the mess before our meeting. We were so well known now that nobody batted an eyelid when we just turned up asking for food and drink. This time it was just a nice hot chocolate to keep us going.

Peter’s office was quite crowded when everybody managed to cram their way in. There was Peter himself, another chap we knew by sight if not by name, the three of us, and two ‘men from the ministry’. One of them began the proceedings.

“Thank you for coming girls. I’m here to explain our problem. We have a submarine in the Gulf of Aden. A bit too near places like Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia for comfort. It can’t move until it can be repaired.”

“I assume it’s a problem within the reactor?” said Holly.

“Err, yes. How did you know?”

“Just a guess. It has to be something that you can’t do easily, probably because it’s dangerous or inaccessible. Inside the reactor core is favourite.”

The Ministry man looked at Peter. That worthy just shrugged his shoulders. “You’ll get used to them. I have.”

The Ministry representative pulled himself together a bit. “Yes. The crew can’t get to it to fix it. Simple apparently but it might as well be on the Moon.”

“Can you give us any details, please?” I asked.

“Err, it’s to do with something called the moderator rods. Apparently they’re stuck down. What needs to be done is simply putting back a nut and bolt that’s worked loose. The mechanism that raises the rods has become detached from the rods themselves.”

“Ahh, so the rods are down, the reactor is on minimum output, probably enough to power the lights and stuff like that, but not enough to run the engines. Can they recharge the batteries?” asked Holly.

Both the men from London shook themselves slightly. This often happens when Holly confounds people by knowing about stuff like this.

“Yes. Or rather, no. They can either operate the boat or recharge the batteries. The batteries let them send messages, cook food, dive and surface but that’s all.”

“So they run on minimum power while charging the batteries, then run everything in a short burst until the batteries are flat, then go back to sleep until the batteries are charged again?” said Holly.

“Basically, yes. I understand you may be able to affect repairs by some means - without touching the components.”

“That’s right,” said Lisa. “Your submarine is as good as fixed. Just got to deal with logistics. Let’s see. Peter, how about if you speak to your friend Doug, at the airbase in - Aden wasn’t it? You get us there, Doug lends us a helicopter or something and we get dropped over the sub.”

I almost saw the Ministry people’s jaws drop open. I was enjoying this, so was Lisa, I could tell. “Give ‘em hell, girl,” I ‘said’.

I got back a picture of two men in short trousers, looking like naughty schoolboys, with Lisa alongside them with a huge grin.

They were even more gobsmacked when Peter simply said seriously. “Ok. I’ll give him a ring and see what’s what.”

Peter didn’t mess about, he picked up the phone and pushed a lot of numbers into it. There was quiet for a moment as the phone made some almost inaudible clicks and an odd-sounding ring-tone. Then a voice at the other end so quiet I couldn’t tell what it was saying. I had to content myself with listening to Peter’s end.

There was an exchange of words that involved much mention of name, rank, and serial number, then Peter was obviously put through to Doug.

“Doug? Peter. I’m fine, thank you. And yourself?”

Muffled words from the other end.

“Right. Problem. Remember the three girls who dug your chaps out of the brown stuff not long ago? Well, I need your help in getting them to a sub off the Somali coast.”

More muffled words.

“Ahh. That’s not good. I didn’t know that. Hang on a minute.”

He turned to the two men from the MoD. “You didn’t tell us the sub had been fired on. Doug says his boys are having to overfly and keep the riff-raff away.”

“Oh no,” I ‘said’. “Not another war-zone.”

“Jody, stop grinning,” ‘said’ Holly.

“Wasn’t grinning,” I ‘said’.

“Your mouth wasn’t but your mind is,” ‘laughed’ Lisa. “Shush. Peter’s talking.”

“You really expect three young girls to go into a war-zone to help you out?”

“Well, I suppose if you put it like that ...”

“Peter,” said Lisa. “Don’t tease the poor men so. You know perfectly well we can take care of ourselves. I expect Jody has a plan already worked out.”

I do? Thanks Lisa. Right, let’s see. “Ahh, right. Peter? Can you get Doug to lay on a Hercules, like last time. Some jets to be an umbrella, just to be safe. The Herc can dive at the sub, chuck us out, and return to base under cover of the jets.”

“Yes, should be do-able,” Peter relayed what I wanted to Doug. “He wants to know how you’ll get back?”

Now that was a question I’d been asking myself while Peter had been talking to Doug. Lisa had the answer.

“We fix the sub, it sails, or whatever it does, to Aden. There it surfaces, Doug sends a chopper, we hop off the sub and onto the chopper, then go home the way we came. How’s that?”

To say the MoD people were out of their depth was an understatement. While Peter and Doug were making detailed arrangements, Lisa took pity on them.

“You do know who we are, what we can do, don’t you?”

“No, not really. We’ve just been sent to see what we can arrange,” one of them confessed.

“Don’t know why we bothered,” said the other one. “You’ve done it all for us. But, I have to ask. Chuck you out? What’ll you do? Wear wetsuits and swim to the sub?”

“Oh, we don’t plan on getting wet,” smiled Lisa. “Perhaps a small demonstration?” She let herself lift a foot or so above her chair. She stayed like that, sitting on nothing, while the two men tried to pull themselves together a bit. Peter looked across and just grinned at the discomfort of his two guests.

“Just don’t worry about it, ok? These three are quite capable of doing what you need. Don’t know about this fixing the boat thing, although if Jody says she can do it, she can.”

He turned to Lisa. “Doug is fixing his end. I can sort a 310 to take you to Aden. Will overnight be ok? That’ll mean you’ll be up and at ‘em first thing tomorrow morning.”

I looked at Peter. “You’ll send the three of us on a 310? Just us?”

Peter laughed. “You wish. No. As it happens there’s a scheduled supply flight from Northolt, you’ve been to Northolt. I’ll just get the MoD to divert it up here first. Now, do me a favour. Take your two new friends to the mess while I organise my end. I’ll let you know when and where later, ok?”

All three of us gave Peter a kiss as we left his office. I was fairly sure the two men from London didn’t know what to think about that. I found I didn’t care what they thought, not really.

We had further surprises in store for the two poor men. We walked into the Officers Mess as if we owned it. The cooks and so on treated us as if we did anyway. We were offered food pretty much at once, but we settled for a hot chocolate and a bun.

“Can we get you anything?” Lisa asked the two men.

“Err, cup of tea?” said one of them, the other nodded so Lisa asked for and got two cups of tea. Then she took pity on them.

“Looks like you two got chucked in the deep end by your bosses. By the way, what do we call you? Just first names will do.”

“You could say that. We’re only just managing to stay afloat. I’m James, and the other one over there is Gerald. I’m sorry we seem to be a bit out of it.”

“Hello James, hello Gerald. I’m Lisa, this is Jody and this is Holly. You work for the Ministry and haven’t heard of us?”

“Not really.”

“I’m upset. Have you heard about a certain Japanese princess rescued from certain death by three girls? Us. A gang of airmen rescued from the middle of the desert by three girls? Us again.”

“That was you three? Please forgive me, I know all about that but I’d assumed the girls involved were much older.”

“Well now you know differently,” I said. “Any details about exactly what needs fixing? More than you’ve already said I mean.”

“Not really. Can you really fix something you can’t see or touch?”

“Yep. No problem. Watch.”

Each table had a sort of sugar dispenser on it. A glass bottle-thing with a spout on top. I used my telekinesis to lift it about thirty centimetres off the table. I ‘spoke’ to Holly, “If I tip it upside down, can you do something clever with the sugar?”

“Go for it.”

Slowly I ‘told’ the bottle to tip sideways. Sugar began to spill out. A stream of sugar descended towards the table top - to turn through a neat right angle a few centimetres before impact. As I saw what Holly was doing, I turned the bottle upright again. The stream of sugar continued sideways for a short distance then turned and went upwards, another right angle and sideways, then a further right angle and down - directly back through the spout into the bottle. I put the bottle back down on the table.

“That’s the can’t touch bit. The can’t see bit is a little more complicated but we can do it - we have done.” Then I added for Holly and Lisa only, “Thanks Holly. That was brilliant.”

“Now do you believe?” laughed Lisa.

“Oh yes. That was quite - impressive.”

“Not the only thing we can do,” said Holly. “Need tools inside the reactor? No problem.” She put out a hand, palm up. The sugar bottle disappeared from the table top and reappeared on Holly’s outstretched hand. “That’s how that bit works.”

“Look, we’re going to go back to London and report that the whole thing should be a success. Can you tell us how to get out of here?”

“Hang on one moment,” said Lisa. She went up to the mess counter and collared the chap with the most rings and stuff on his arms. Smiling sweetly, she asked if somebody could act as escort for our two men.

“Leave it with me Miss. Be somebody along directly.”

Another smile, and Lisa was back. James and Gerald got up. “Should we say goodbye to the CO?”

“No, it’ll be ok,” said Lisa. We’ll let him know you’ve gone.”

At that moment an airman appeared. He actually saluted Lisa. “You need an escort Miss?”

“Not for me,” said Lisa as if this sort of thing happened all the time. “Can you take these two gentlemen to their car which I assume is in the visitors car park near the Guardroom?”

James and Gerald nodded. Goodbyes were said, the airman saluted again and ushered the two men from the mess. The three of us sat down again.

“Wooee,” I said. “That was fun.”

“Ruddy hard work is what it was,” said Lisa. Now, we up for sleeping on a plane tonight?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Won’t be the first time.”

“Hmm. Lisa? We’ll be missing school on Monday. Think Peter’ll fix it again?” said Holly.

“Don’t know what he did last time. Should be ok again. I’ll make sure we ask him. That’ll mean we can get a good night’s sleep at Aden. Pack some spare togs. Last time was a bit - alfresco - no, that means to eat outdoors - I think. Whatever, you know what I mean.”

We were still giggling together when the escort airman returned. He saluted again.

“CO’s compliments and can you join him in his office please.”

“With pleasure. Thank you so much,” said Lisa with a smile. That made the airman smile. Perhaps he didn’t get thanked much. Then I thought, what he doesn’t get is thanked by a pretty young girl like Lisa, that’d make anybody smile.

Peter had information for us. “Flight out of here at twenty one hundred. That’s nine o’clock.”

I was slightly annoyed that he told us before I could get a word in. Never mind. That’d get us to Aden very early tomorrow morning.

Lisa was in Director mode. “Ok Angels. Be here at eight o’clock, yes?”

“Yes Ma’am,” I said.

“Any more orders Ma’am?” said Holly.

Lisa looked at us and shook her head sadly. “It’s no good, I’m going to have to teach you to salute.”

We were all laughing as Lisa’s phone rang. “Hello Beth.”

Holly and I listened through our link. “Hi Lisa. Can you call at the lab on your way home? Got something for you.”

“Ok. We need to stoke the boilers then we’ll be there.”

“Want to eat in the mess?” asked Peter.

“Say yes Lisa,” I ‘heard’ Holly say. “Their burgers are way better than anywhere in town.”

I just sent Lisa a picture of me nodding. Then Holly sent a picture of me trying to eat a burger nearly as big as I was. Cheek.

“Seems the Angels want me to say yes. We’d love to eat in the mess. Will you join us?”

“Sorry girls. Too much to do. I’ll see you later, ok?”

We gave Peter the expected kiss and retired back to the mess. The cooks and whatnot didn’t seem surprised to see us, burgers and chips appeared almost at once. Were we that predictable? I had to assume that this was the case.

Something else that appeared - well someone anyway - was Brian. He joined us at our table. While he and Lisa chatted away together, Holly and I practised our new-found ability to tune Lisa out of the link. It took quite a lot of effort, especially as she was sitting next to us.

“Jody? Aren’t you feeling left out? Here’s Lisa with her Brian, I’ll probably be seeing Vic in a little while. You don’t seem to have seen Mike for ages.”

“I’ll survive. Mike is always there when I need him. We do speak now and then. Besides, when I do see him again it’ll be really nice.”

“You should make the time, go and see him.”

“You sure you don’t want to look over my shoulder while we ...”

“Jody! You know I don’t mean that at all!”

I put a hand on her arm, “Don’t worry, Holly dear. I know that.”

“Mind you ... I might get some tips to use with Vic.”

I thumped her gently. “Holly Merrick, you just stop that.”

We leaned against each other giggling gently. I don’t think Lisa even noticed.

We went home by way of the lab as requested.

Beth greeted us. “Ahh. The Three Disgraces.”

“Excuse me? “ said Holly, pretty much just before I could say the same thing. Lisa laughed gently.

“I like that Beth. The Three Disgraces. Yes. Very appropriate.” Then she had to explain before Holly and I burst something trying to get her attention.

“A slight play on words. The Three Graces, they’re sometimes called the Charities, are Charm, Grace, and Beauty. They’re daughters of Greek gods, Zeus and somebody I can’t remember. Their actual names are Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thaleia.”

That had Beth stumped. “Oh Lisa. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you knew what it all meant. I’d never have said it if I’d known. Because you are, the three of you, the Graces.”

Lisa put a hand on Beth’s arm. “No we’re not Beth, not really. I think what you called us at first is probably quite right.”

“So I can add a knowledge of Greek Mythology to my list of stuff you can do or know about? grinned Beth.

“Well not all that much maybe, but that bit certainly,” said Lisa. “Enough of that. You said you had something for us?”

“Oh, yes. Here.” She fished behind her desk and produced three packages. I had half an idea what they might be. I was right - of course.

“I thought you might need some more of the one-piece suits. The Angels should be recognisable, don’t you think.”

All three of us quickly unwrapped the bundles. As well as a lab logo, pretty much meaningless to anybody who didn’t know what it was, there was another embroidered patch which said simply ‘Angels’. There were two suits in each package.

“Oh wow. Thank you Beth,” said Lisa, speaking for us all. “How did you know we’d need them tonight? One on and one in the wash. Brilliant.” Lisa is nothing if not practical.

“Just a guess,” grinned Beth. “Been meaning to get them done. Especially after your dad said they should have the lab logo on them, Lisa.”

Lisa took charge again. “Come on Angels. Stuff to sort out. Sorry we need to go Beth. We’ll let you know how it all goes.”

In the air on the way home, Holly ‘said’ “Good job we got two new suits. We need three on this jaunt.”

“Three?” I ‘said’, which gave time for Lisa to think about it.

“She’s right. We wear one set tonight. We’ll be sleeping in those, so it’ll be nice to get changed in the morning in Aden. That’s two sets. Then we sleep in Aden and get a plane back on Monday. That’s three sets. Good thinking Holly.”

“Got to remember enough knickers as well then,” I ‘laughed’.

“Trust you Jody,” ‘said’ Holly. “Drag everything down to the gutter-level.”

“See why I said The Three Disgraces was suitable?” ‘laughed’ Lisa.

“Anyway,” ‘said’ Holly. “Anything’ll be better than last time.”

I found I had to agree with that. No time for more chatter, I was home. Landing gently in the back garden, I advanced on the kitchen door - which opened as I got to it.

“There you are,” said Mum. “My spies tell me you’re off on another job.”

“Yes. Sorry Mum.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just do what you need to do. I don’t need to tell you to be careful.”

“Beth is doing the invoice as we speak.” Then I had a thought that had actually been bothering me for a while. “Mum? Where does the lab get all its money from? What they do and what they have must cost a mint.”

“Mm. Your dad knows. He told me once. He’s in the lounge. Why don’t you go and ask him while I do tea?”

I gave her a kiss. “Thanks Mum.” Then I ‘added’, “Listen up you two. Might be interesting.”

“Hello dear.”

“Hi Dad.” I sat next to him on the settee. “Mum says you know where the lab gets all its money from.”

“What’s brought this on? D’you want some of it?”

“No. It’s just that they pass on any money we earn to us. Where does all their money come from. That PET scanner thing must have cost them about a million quid.”

“And the rest my dear. Are the others listening?”

I hugged him. “Yes Dad.”

“Ok. Back in about 1910 or thereabouts there was a young-ish scientist called Donald Merriweather. He was interested in ESP and other para-normal activities. He had a few of the powers himself. Turned out that one of these was precognition, a bit like yours Lisa.” Dad knew Lisa was ‘listening’, I could tell she was really pleased he was talking to her as if she was actually there. He went on.

“One of the things he realised quite early on was that he could predict stocks and shares, which would go up and which would go down. You know what I mean?”

“Yes Dad. So do Lisa and Holly.” They did, they’d just ‘said’ so.

“Anyway, he trundled along making money now and then - until 1929.”

I ‘heard’ Lisa ‘say’, “The Wall Street Crash.”

“Lisa says The Wall Street Crash.”

“That’s right Lisa, well done. Now, our Donald knew all about what was going to happen. He tried to tell people but nobody believed him. So he took steps on his own. When the dust had settled some years later, Donald was a millionaire, which in the 1930’s was no mean thing. It was about then that he founded the lab. You probably don’t know, but it’s actual name is the Donald Merriweather Institute. Hence the logo which is DMI. I know you know that, it’s on those new togs you’ve just brought in.”

“A million quid wouldn’t last long. What did he do? Invest it?”

“Good thinking Holly.” Dad said when I told him what Holly had ‘said’. “But not quite. Donald used his precog abilities to predict stocks and shares again. He did this up until he died in 1976. What he also did was compile a list of what to do up as far ahead as 2120 I think. The lab has a whole finance department to look after such things. Their actual income is more than they can ever use. Hence a million pounds worth of whatever-it-is scanner. No problem.”

Dad’s impromptu lecture was interrupted by Mum shouting that tea was ready. Then after that there was just time to pack a small bag to take with us. Then it was off back to the airbase. No point getting Dad involved, I simply flew there. So, as it happened, did Lisa and Holly. Let the next adventure begin.