Gavin Lyall - Shooting Script

This time I didn't say anydiing. I just let my jaw dangle against my chest. After a time she noticed my expression had changed from the hungry leer which I'd been wearing ever since we met, and asked: 'You know Clausewitz, of course, Capitán?'

'He was die German general who… well, it was in Napoleon's time, wasn't it?'

'He wrote On War,' she said, a little austerely.

'Yes, I expect he did.' Not quite my brightest and best remark, but I was still going through die disorientated feeling you might get if die aeroplane had suddenly decided to fly backwards.

'But you must have read his books in your Air Force. He has been much misunderstood, but he is still the basis of all strategy.'

I nodded helpfully. 'I'm sure diey read him at dietop of the RAF but I was pretty close to die bottom. They didn't consult me much on strategy.'

She frowned. 'Was that why you left your Air Force?'

I waved a helpless hand. 'Look -1 was just a pilot. A bullet. The air marshals pulled the trigger and I went where I was pointed. That's all.'

But that wasn't quite the impression I'd planned to give. I'd been diinking more along die lines of The Dashing Debonair Aviator Flying Fearless Into The Eye Of The Hurricane.

The hell with you, Clausewitz. I hope your tent leaked oncampaigns and your publishers cheated you on royalties.

'Now that,' I said, pointing, 'is the original church of Spanish Town. You should see some of the inscriptions on the gravestones from the plague days-'

'Your Lord Nelson was here before he became a Lord, I think,' she said.

'Yes, that's down at Port Royal-'

'He was not a strategist, of course, but a very good tactician.'

I thought of asking whether she meant Trafalgar or Lady Hamilton, but decided not to. I said: 'At one time, Spanish Town was the capital of-'

She said: 'Only the Nile and Copenhagen were his important battles of course. In each he used the factor of surprise in the most interesting way…'

In the next hour I learnt a lot about Nelson. I also picked up some good stuff about Marlborough, the Schließen Plan, the two Moltkes, Foch, and Hannibal.

Somehow, it still wasn't the car drive I'd planned.

It was twilight when we pulled into Shaw Park. J.B.'s Avantiand Whitmore's white station wagon were parked there, so I leant on the bell of Apartment C.

Luiz opened the door. He started to smile at me, then caught the view over my shoulder and went into shock. It was nice to see it happen to a professional.

He recovered quickly and made an elegant gesture that just happened to shove me out of the Uneof sight.'Señorita Jiminez? I am called Luiz Monterrey. I knew your father. May I express my sorrow at the death of your brother? I should wear mourning' – he was still in film clothes; he plucked distastefully at the torn, smudged frilly shirt – 'but an actor must wear mourning in his heart. That, I do. But youmust be tired, please-' I was suddenly alone on the doorstep.

He was a pro, all right.

I hauled the luggage out of the car to release the driver for other company business, and walked into Apartment Cmyself. And straight into the muzzle of a gun.

I recognised it as one of the lever-action rifles they'd used in the river-crossing scene; the face behind it seemed vaguely familiar from the film-set, too.

'Blanks, I trust?' I said.

'You could find out – the hard way.' The face was grim and steady. 'Now say somep'n about who you are and why.'

J.B. came around the corner of the passage. 'All right, Doug – he's one of ours.'

The rifle drooped towards the floor – a little disappointed, I thought.

'After Diego,' J.B. explained, 'the Boss Man started taking a few precautions. He's licenced to have real ammunition for that thing in case he wants to go hunting alligators down on the Black River. Come on through.'

I dumped the luggage just inside the door, and said to the man Doug: 'You're in a bad position there: coming in with the light behind me I could have been Santa Clausor Fidel Castro. Either way, you could have made a bad mistake.'

'Only if you was Santy Glaus,' he said calmly.

In the living-room facing over the patio and beach, Whit-more was offering Miss Jiminez a drink and she was saying she'd rather have a wash and brush up first. J.B. led her off through the bedroom.

Whitmore waved at me, then sprawled himself down on the sofa. 'Buy yourself a drink, fella.' The room was littered with bottles, glasses, dirty plates – they'd obviously just finished dinner – and yellow pages of shooting scripts. I started searching.

'Hell,' he said thoughtfully, 'that's quite a piece of tail you brought in.'

Luiz over-acted an anguished wince.

Whitmore grinned at him. 'If you wanna go riding withouta. horse, fella, I ain't competing.'

'You gringo peasant.'

Whitmore grinned even wider. Then he turned back to me, 'How's this aeroplane look?'

Luiz shook his head. 'A girl like that comes in – and the man wants to talk about aeroplanes.'

'I already said my piece about her and you didn't seem to like it.'

J.B. came back. 'Didn't know what I was letting you in for, Carr. That's quite a piece of-'

'My God,' Luiz said, 'Americans.'

J.B. looked at him, surprised, then smiled wickedly. 'You really getting hot pants about her, Luiz? I'll get you a pass key for her room.'

'What about this aeroplane?' Whitmore roared.

By then I'd found myself an unopened bottle of Red Stripe and half a plate of not-quite-cold prawns and rice. I swallowed and said: 'I've had a couple of men working on it at Port Antonio – I paid their fares from Kingston each day, if that's all right – and North American sent in some parts yesterday, so…' I gave him a fairly full progress report. It added up to the hope that the Mitchell would be ready for an air-test the next afternoon.

'After that,' I said, 'you can start filming as soon as you can fit cameras. But she'll need some more work before she does a bombing raid – if you still want to go on with that.'

He stared. 'Hell, yes. What's the matter?'

'Nothing,' I shook my head. 'Just – just every time I think of it, the crazier it sounds.'

'It'll work, won't it?'

'Yes, I think it'll work.'

'Okay then. So what needs doing to her?'

I listed the items. I wanted to rip out all the excess weight -those seats and central heating in the rear, the bomb-bay tank. I'd learnt, from gossip around the airport, that some Mitchells had been fitted with such tanks in the war, so I hoped that it had been normal to leave the bomb rails and shackles in above them. If so, all I'd need to do was make sure they worked and then rewire the release mechanism.

Luiz said thoughtfully: 'You will have to work carefully, my friend. If the generals hear we are re-converting the aeroplane to a bomber…' he shrugged.

'She's in the script now,' Whitmore said. 'We can cover a lot of the work as dolling her up for the picture.'

Luiz looked doubtful.

I said: 'Frankly, I don't think there's much we can do on the security side except not make it too obvious. They must know we've got the Mitchell and if they believe I may be going to use it against them, we can't stop 'em believing, whatever we do. Still, once we've got the big changes made on her, I'll take over rigging her for bombing myself. That's as secure as we can get.'

They might have wanted to argue the point, but just then Miss Jiminez came back into the room. Maybe looking a little fresher, although I hadn't noticed anything wrong in that department before.

Whitmore stayed sprawled where he was. I bent myself into that half-on-the-feet position the British use for showing they're being polite. Luiz went across the room like a pouncing tiger and started easing her into a chair like a foot into a shoe.