The job they'd been on had gone off without a hitch. They got out and got transferred to the sub in the middle of the night and landed back in England about two hours after the sun came up. Debriefing took most of the day, but they were still back at the mansion with enough time for the Warden to clean up all the paperwork Rawlins had set aside for him and for them to get some rest before dinner. To celebrate they decided they wanted to go out and have someone else cook the meal for a change, and they even talked Garrison into going along.

They were on a back road that connected the house to the village where Winnie and Alf lived. Goniff heard about a place from his friend Beryl that sounded good, and talked the others into heading there rather than going into the Doves as they usually did. Secretly he was hoping he might see Beryl because she said she ate there sometimes. Or maybe they'd get over there before her shop closed and he could get away from the others to walk her home…or something. Chief was driving, as usual. Casino had claimed the shotgun seat up front. Goniff was on the drop down in back, but you'd never know it. Anxious to arrive he'd twisted around and hung his arms over the seat so most of him was really in front between them. Actor and Garrison were in the back. The evening had turned clear and cold. The ground was covered by a light dusting of snow and stars sparkled overhead.

The back part of the mansion grounds had been converted from parkland and feeding lots for the deer the owners used to stalk, into fields where vegetables could be grown. Every house that had a plot was supposed to do their part to help feed the nation, and they were no exception. Garrison worked the plan out with Rawlins and got permission from the owners. The troops that were assigned there, or the ones who rotated through, did the initial groundbreaking. Those five acres had been turned over to the government and a crew of 'land girls' planted, harvested, and managed the property now. The women stayed in the village where Alf and Winnie lived and came in and out of the grounds along the backroads that lay between. They were using one of those roads.

The road was unfamiliar and narrow. After it left their grounds, it ran along between stacked stone fences that the farmers from the other village used to contain their livestock. There weren't any gates. The walls were just picked apart to let the animals through, and they restacked them to close the opening when they no longer needed it. Anyone walking the fields just clambered over the low barrier. It was pretty open to begin with, but as they got closer to the village buildings began to appear. For the most part it was just sheds used to offer shelter to the stock or protect feed and they were at a distance from the road. As they traveled along the buildings increased in size and began edging up on the fence until some of them were close enough to have a wall just be built right up out of the same stone. In other places the wooden structures almost rested against the rocks. Some of them had windows that looked out over the lane. Some of them even had doors, but they were either split, Casino's mother called those Dutch doors, or opened inwards because they were far too close to the wall swing out.

Goniff had stopped his chattering for a moment and the other four were enjoying the quiet when Actor sat forward and shouted from the back seat.

"Stop the car!"

Chief wasn't going very fast, so the car stopped immediately. Both rear doors opened, and Garrison and Actor bailed out the back. The other three were left looking after them wondering what the problem was. Garrison vaulted over the fence at the far edge of a dilapidated looking shack. Actor stooped in the road and scooped up dirt with his fine leather gloves and had tossed it at the edge of the building. It appeared the Warden was doing the same from his side of the fence. And then they caught the yellow white flicker between the old boards. The place was on fire.

Actor moved down the fence line. There were no windows on this face of the old building but there was a timber door, and he started to pound on that and shout to anyone who might be inside. The Warden had disappeared down the far side of the place. Doors opened on either side of the car and the other three started to climb out when Garrison appeared again and landed back in the road.

"Get going! Get the fire brigade out here! Actor, get out of there!"

The car slowly rolled forward and cleared the other side of the shack by a dozen feet or so. They could see flames flickering up between the boards that made up the front of the building now. There was no way throwing dirt at it was going to put the fire out. All of them knew it would take the pump truck, but none of them wanted to just drive off and leave the others. Casino rolled out his side and Chief came to a halt again and turned to look back as Goniff opened the back door to get out.

Garrison dug in like a sprinter starting out of the blocks and headed for Actor. When he reached him, he hooked his right arm across the Italian's chest and just kept moving. It pulled the larger man off balance and sent them both falling.

Casino threw his arm up to protect his face when the place went up. The heat seared its way through the back windows and into the car and the force of the backdraft blew leaves and dirt into the faces of the two men standing either side of the vehicle. Everything went into slow motion while they watched the ball of flames climb up into the night. The split-second it took for it to dissipate seemed more like an hour.

When they started moving again flames had broken through the roof of the place and were merrily eating away at the old building. The top of the timber door had blown out into the road and was still resting across the two men laying in the lane. When they reached them neither one was moving, neither one seemed to be breathing. Casino hefted the door off to the side. Goniff started pulling Garrison away to the far side of the road and by then Chief was standing with them. He and Casino handled Actor. By the time they'd gotten out where the heat wasn't so bad the two men they were dragging had started to cough and the Warden was trying to get away to get to his feet.

Chief looked back at the place that was quickly turning to charcoal. "Hope no one was inside."

Garrison had given up on getting all the way to his feet and was crouched at the edge of the road with the rest of them. "One big room,' he choked out. He'd run along the far side of the building and found a window. "Empty." It was all he could manage before he started coughing. There was a creak and the end wall, where they'd originally spotted the fire, fell into the flames sending a swirl of embers up into the gathering darkness.

Actor pushed at the ground and managed to get up into a sitting position. He had a heavy woolen coat on, and a wool scarf around his throat against the cold. His leather gloves had protected his hands, but his face felt like he'd spent a little too much time in the sun. He could only imagine what he looked like but when he turned towards the Warden, he got a good idea.

Garrison's face had a fine layer of dirt and soot over it. There were rays of cleaner skin spreading out from the corners of his eyes where they'd been slammed shut through the blast. His hair had been sent forward towards his face, his cap had been blown off and made it all the way to the side of the road where they were sitting. There was an odor of burned hair emanating from both of them.

Actor cleared the smoke out of his throat. "Are you alright?"

Garrison took stock of his second. "Most of me. You?"

The conman raised his hand to his face. "I believe the end of my nose may have blistered," he said mournfully, but he bent his knees and planted his feet on the ground and took the hand Casino offered him.

They stood together looking at what was left of the building. The old boards were already burning down towards the top of the stones that lined the road. The front wall was beginning to lean inward, ready to follow the end wall into the flames.

"What 'd we do?" Goniff asked, half hopeful of the answer, now that he knew his teammates only had minor injuries.

Garrison scanned the road both ways. "We keep going. We're closer to Alf's and he has a phone."

Chief had already jogged up the road and hopped the wall to reconnoiter the little disaster. He was back with his report. "Just rock and hard pack dirt around the place. Nothin' to burn out into that field… And it rained here this morning. That bit of afternoon snow'll help too."

They started back towards the car. When Actor tried to brush himself off Goniff took to helpfully swiping and swatting at his back and shoulders. "How come the rain didn't help that old building then?"

"Metal roof kept the rain off the wood," Chief decided as he slid in under the wheel and the others got settled. "Place was probably so old and dry it would a gone up in the middle of a downpour anyway."

"Wonder who owned it?" Casino asked as they pulled away and left the glow of the fire in their rear window.

"Winnie'll know." Goniff suggested. "Or Beryl'll be able to look up some book about it at her shop." And she didn't live far from Winnie, and she had a phone too…