The Challenging Heights by Max Hennessy

however, and plenty of sport, including shooting, which added duck, partridge, pigeon and grouse to the monotonous menu, but there was a lot of resentment against the British and it was never wise to go far from the base unarmed, and even a visit to one of the pathetic cabarets in the city entailed carrying a revolver.
    Since the area had recently emerged from a long period of a cholera epidemic, the eating of all fresh fruits and vegetables was banned and the Vernons were used to carry patients from distant airfields to the hospital, even occasionally a victim of the bubonic plague, after which the crew searched themselves scrupulously from head to foot for the bites of the flea that carried the disease, before heading for the mess for a stiff reassuring drink or two.
    With the northern tribes quiet, most of the work consisted of carrying passengers between the aerodrome and Baghdad where general headquarters were situated, and landing after a trip to Mosul, Dicken was met by Hatto.
    ‘He’s arrived,’ Hatto said.
    ‘Parasol Percy?’ Obviously, Hatto couldn’t mean anyone else because Diplock sat across their careers like blight.
    ‘All set to go up the ladder,’ Hatto said. ‘Passed the Staff College examination with honours and selected to go at once. Got a good recommendation from the Wing Colonel, of course. All those languages he speaks. He’s also got a new gong, I notice. Order of St Anne with Swords. Given to him by that chap, Yudenitch, for sitting at a desk in Riga. They were two of a kind. Yudenitch’s campaign produced about as much as Parasol Percy’s.’
    ‘What’s he doing here?’
    ‘He’s taking over this wing and he starts his tour of duty with an inspection with his old friend, St Aubyn. I gather they’re out to find fault. Unfortunately, they got off on the wrong foot. There’s a big economy drive on so Percy dug up a lot of petrol that’s been standing idle for a long time and delivered it round the squadrons. Harris promptly complained it was dangerous because it contains water so it’s all had to be withdrawn and, unfortunately, Percy isn’t sure where it all went.’
    Hatto smiled. ‘They tried to get their own back by ticking Harris off over his bomb racks but that didn’t come off either because Harris doesn’t have ginger hair and a gift for pungent expression for nothing. He informed them that so long as his Vernons do their transport stuff there’s no reason why they shouldn’t also be good at bombing. There’s no answer to that. We’re next and I gather they’re out for blood.’
    The flight was lined up outside the decrepit wooden hangar they’d been given when the Group Captain appeared, trailed by Diplock. St Aubyn acknowledged Hatto’s salute but offered no ‘Good Morning’. Like Diplock, he had had occasion from the past to remember Hatto and he was in a mood to find fault. He complained about haircuts, polished boots, the way puttees had been wound, even the straightness of the lines.
    Putting on his glasses, the great man then proceeded to inspect the machines and, rubbing a finger along the flying wires of the nearest, half turned and held out his finger.
    ‘What’s this?’
    ‘Rustless paint, sir,’ Hatto said.
    ‘Other squadrons aren’t in the habit of using rustless paint. You’d better make a point of visiting them and see how they maintain their aircraft.’
    Hatto’s face went red. Dicken could see Diplock standing behind the Group Captain, his face smooth and expressionless. Hatto indicated a chalked circle on the floor of the hangar.
    ‘Sir. Perhaps you’ll note that circle.’
    ‘What about it?’
    ‘There are fifty-one like it, sir, and each one marks a leak in the roof.’ Hatto pointed to the door. ‘And that door, sir, can’t be opened because if it were the roof would fall in. If you can provide me with a hangar that will keep out the weather, I’ll maintain the aircraft as well as any other station.’
    St Aubyn looked