Although only a secondary character, Kiwi is an indispensable character. Kiwi is first and foremost a friend to the principles. He is someone who is on their side and can be trusted even when things go very wrong -- as he will prove in the final book in the series. In the first two volumes he is more in the background, yet reliable and well worth getting to know.
“Bloody bastard!” Kiwi exclaimed furiously as he slammed down the receiver and pushed out of the hotel phone booth. He shoved his peaked cap onto the back of his head in frustration, revealing his red face.
Ron and Chips, standing just outside the booth, pounced on him at once. “What did he say?”
“That bureaucratic arse says he ‘can’t’ let us fly from any RAF facility until he has orders from General Robertson making an exception for AAI aircraft! It’s nothing but bumpf! Sheer bureaucratic bumpf!” He resisted the urge to fling his cap down and stamp on it.
"Maybe we could fly from one of the U.S. bases?” Ron suggested.
“We’d spend nearly a full tank of fuel just to get there and they’re twice as far from Berlin!” Kiwi snapped back, then softened his answer by adding, “I know you’re just trying to help, Ron. I don’t mean to take it out on you, but this is just pure bunk! Pig-headedness! Arrogance! Bagshot’s an effing bastard!”
“Did you tell him patients are waiting to be flown out?” Chips asked.
“Of course! I told him there were dozens of desperately ill patients waiting. I told him their lives depended on us getting them out, and this was a high priority of the Berlin City Council — to which he answered that he didn’t take orders from the Berlin City Council and all Germans could die as far as he was concerned!” Kiwi was so angry he was not keeping his voice down and was starting to attract attention. This last comment harvested shocked and angry looks from across the lobby.
“Maybe we should go get a drink and do some more brainstorming,” Ron suggested reasonably.
“You carry on. I’ve got ring Mr Goldman and let him know we’re still stuck here and don’t know when we can get to Berlin. We don’t want the patients waiting around at Gatow, and maybe he can get a message to Robertson.”
The mechanics nodded and headed for the hotel bar, while Kiwi returned to the telephone booth to ring David. He was relieved when Emily answered the phone and promised to advise David of the situation for him. David had an unpleasant way of making Kiwi feel he was to blame when things went wrong, and he didn’t want to get a bollocking for this latest cock up.
As he started for the bar, however, Kiwi was intercepted by Virginia Cox of the Times. “Chuck, Darling!” she called out to him waving and smiling. “What a delightful surprise!”
Kiwi couldn’t think of anyone he wanted to see less! He’d never forgive the way Virginia had set a trap for him once before. She’d asked for an interview about the launch of AAI and over lunch at the Hotel Adlon, she’d charmed all sorts of proprietary information out of him. After flattering him through lunch, she’d brushed him off like a piece of dirt — and added insult to injury by writing a misleading article. He looked her straight in the eye and asked, “Do we know each other?”
“Chuck Darling! What a card you are! You can’t have forgotten that lovely lunch together at the —”
He cut her off. “What I remember is you chasing after the next story before we’d even finished and then writing an article that twisted the facts enough to put AAI in jeopardy.”
She gazed at him with an expression of wounded surprise that would not have shamed a Hollywood actress. “But Chuck! That’s my job — chasing after stories, I mean. And I’m stunned, no crushed, that you didn’t like the article. I so wanted to do you justice in it. I thought it read—”
“Like we were a pair of crazy, barnstorming, bush pilots ignoring aviation regulations!”
“Chuck! That wasn’t my intention at all. I truly wanted to show what a wonderful job you’d done.” She looked and sounded so profoundly sincere that Kiwi wondered if it had been a misunderstanding.
“Please, Chuck. Let me buy you a drink and we can talk this through. What are you doing in Hamburg, by the way?” She had slipped her hand through his elbow and pulled him to her just enough so he could feel her breast against his side as she led the way toward the bar.
Damn it! He couldn’t control his attraction for her despite what she’d done to him. She was a corker anyway you looked at it with bright blond hair and legs to kill for. It didn’t hurt that she was dressed now in a sleek two-piece suit, silk stockings and pearls. She’d been the debutante of the season ten years ago. Damn her! And except for that embarrassing one-night-stand with a girl whose name he couldn’t remember, he’d been celibate ever since his wife left him seven months ago.
Virginia, meanwhile, had drawn him to the hotel bar, where Ron and Chips were gaping at him as the stunning woman led him in and then perched herself on a bar stool in a way that drew all men’s eyes to her legs. “What are you drinking, Chuck Darling?” she asked with a heart-warming smile.
No, Kiwi told himself, he was not going to get drawn into cocktails and God knew what next. He gone off the heavy liquor ever since he’d failed his first flight test on twins and had had to retake it at his own expense. David had given him a second chance and he was not going to screw it up. “A half-pint of that German beer they sell around here.”
“Holsten, I think it’s called,” she supplied the name with a glance at the bartender for confirmation. He nodded and she ordered, “A Holsten for the captain and a Cuba Libre for me.”
The bartender withdrew and Kiwi cautiously took his seat beside Virginia. Without physical contact, he found he could think a little more clearly. He concluded that the best way to stop her from luring him into a new trap was to ask some questions of his own. “What are you doing here in Hamburg? I thought you were covering the Airlift.”
“So, I am!” Virginia assured him enthusiastically. “That’s exactly why I’m here.” He looked at her blankly, and she exclaimed, “The Sunderlands! Surely you saw the news? They flew into Berlin for the first time yesterday, and I managed to get an exclusive interview with the squadron commander operating out of Finkenwerde. But there’s no good hotel there, so I’m staying here. I’m here half the time anyway because the Airlift Story isn’t all about Berlin, you know. It’s also about the organization behind the Airlift and the departure fields, and ships bringing in supplies and all that.” She seemed to realise she was talking too much and suddenly exclaimed, “What a wonderful coincidence to run into you! I assumed you were flying yourself ragged, getting sick people out of Berlin.” She paused, looking at him with big, admiring eyes.
“Well, that’s what I wish I were doing and ought to be doing!” Kiwi burst out, and without thinking added, “But a certain Group Captain Bagshot, who happens to be in charge of the RAF effort, refuses to approve a flight plan for us unless he has express orders from General Robertson!”
“Good heavens! What a lot of nonsense! People might die if they can’t get out of Berlin to get the medical attention they need! You can’t be serious?”
“Of course, I’m serious! We’re cooling our heels here wasting money on hotel bills and airport fees while seriously sick people are trapped in Berlin all because Group Captain Bagshot is too stubborn or too cowardly to approve a flight plan!”
“He ought to be called out on this,” Virginia noted.
“What do you mean?” Kiwi asked, suddenly wary.
“Well, an article describing the plight of sick children who can’t get out of Berlin—”
“Oh no you don’t!” Kiwi cut her off. “I was just telling you why I’m here. I don’t want you screaming about it in the papers. Bagshot will have it in for us if you do that.” Not to mention, he thought to himself, David will kill me for blabbing again. “Promise me you won’t publish anything about this!”
“Now, Chuck Darling, you know the rules,” she admonished with a flirtatious smile. “When talking to journalists, unless you say upfront that something is ‘off the record,’ then anything and everything you say can be used.” She said it in a nice way, but Kiwi knew she was coldblooded when it came to her job — and he knew an article against Bagshot would ruin them.
He reached out and clasped her wrist in a fierce grip. “I wasn’t talking to you as a journalist!”
Virginia looked down at his hand pointedly, and he removed it. They sat tensely side-by-side. Kiwi watched her like a hawk. Her face had become hard. Then something seemed to click inside her, and she turned on a charming smile. “All right, Chuck, I won’t write anything about it. I just wanted to do you a favour. A little negative publicity often does wonders to clear away pointless bureaucracy, but if you don’t want my help…” she finished the sentence with a shrug.
“No. I don’t want you meddling in my affairs. We’ll work this out in our own way. And that’s that.”
Their drinks arrived, and Kiwi lifted his beer in salute and Virginia replied in kind. As she put her glass down, Virginia asked with a reconciliatory smile, “What are you doing for dinner tonight, Chuck? I’ve discovered this wonderful old beer cellar that didn’t get blitzed. It’s underground, you see, with big, vaulted ceilings and gigantic, wooden beer kegs. Very romantic.”
Did she mean that? Part of Kiwi was tempted, but he caught sight of Ron and Chips watching him alertly and he shook his head. “No, I’m here with my ground crew and we’ll do something together. That, or” he had a better thought, “I’ll hitchhike to Berlin to discuss the situation with Mr Goldman.”
“Oh,” she seemed surprised, almost hurt by his rejection. She didn’t get turned down very often, Kiwi presumed.
“Maybe another time,” he offered, half regretting what he’d just done.
The first battle of the Cold War is about to begin....
Berlin 1948. In the ruins of
Hitler’s capital, former RAF officers, a woman pilot, and the victim of Russian
brutality form an air ambulance company. But the West is on a collision course
with Stalin’s aggression and Berlin is about to become a flashpoint. World War
Three is only a misstep away. Buy Now
Berlin is under siege. More than two million civilians must be supplied by air -- or surrender to Stalin's oppression.
USAF Captain J.B. Baronowsky and RAF Flight
Lieutenant Kit Moran once risked their lives to drop high explosives on Berlin.
They are about to deliver milk, flour and children’s shoes instead. Meanwhile,
two women pilots are flying an air ambulance that carries malnourished and
abandoned children to freedom in the West. Until General Winter deploys on the
side of Russia. Buy now!
Based on historical events, award-winning and best-selling novelist Helena P. Schrader delivers an insightful, exciting and moving tale about how former enemies became friends in the face of Russian aggression — and how close the Berlin Airlift came to failing.
Winning a war with milk, coal and candy!
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