However, much to her surprise, she received a letter soon after telling her she’d got the job. Two days later she was escorted down to the underground Lascaris War Rooms, which Linda, the woman in charge, laughingly called ‘The Hole’. Riva could see why. Much of it was a maze of gloomy sunless tunnels and grim chambers, reminding Riva of a claustrophobic rabbit warren. The entire complex had been formed from old tunnels built by the Knights of St John but British forces brought in miners from Yorkshire and Wales to explode parts of the rock and cliff. So, beneath the Upper Barrakka Gardens overlooking the Grand Harbour the tunnels had been extended for the RAF and the navy. The miners also developed miles of tunnels beneath the city as shelters for the people, including carving out small chambers where families could find some privacy during the air raids.
Riva was shown the different rooms. The plotting room – No. 8 Sector Operations Room – where she would work, was overlooked by a gallery from which the commanders could look down to see the enormous table below where the positions of everything were marked. She was also shown a coastal defence room, an anti-aircraft operations room, and several others.
‘The air is mechanically ventilated through metal piping retrieved from ships that have been sunk in the GrandHarbour,’ Linda said proudly. ‘You start on Monday, but remember we are the nerve centre of Malta’s defence, and you must never talk about what we do here. Understand?’
The weekend was relatively quiet, and Riva managed some unbroken sleep apart from the dreams of Bobby that had taken her by surprise.
When she started work as a plotter on that first Monday morning, she stared at the huge RAF plotting table where she saw a map of Malta and the area around it, including some of Sicily and the Aeolian islands. When she glanced up at the gallery above and the men in the gods – as the gallery was known – she stepped back in shock.
‘That’s the leader of D-watch,’ Linda whispered, seeing her looking. ‘Our senior controller, Group Captain Sir Robert Beresford, and he’s aided by Flight Lieutenant Weston.’
Riva could not speak, just nodded and longed to make a run for it. Did Bobby know she would be working here? Perhaps if she kept her head down and just got on with her work, he might not even notice her.
She put on her headphones as she had been shown and the messages from the filter room began coming in. Everyone immediately looked serious, and all other thoughts left her mind as she began to assemble and then move the aircraft blocks around. She had to use a long stick to plot the locations as the aircraft travelled south and approached Malta and she was terrified of getting it wrong. There was a rush of activity among the men above her as the pilots’ voices were broadcast from loudspeakersand squadrons were scrambled. When they heard ‘Tally-ho’ in their headphones, all that was left for the girls to do was pray that the pilots would be safe.
Most of the time Riva had neither time to think, sleep or breathe, and it was after a night like that that she came out into the thick dusty morning air to find Bobby looking exhausted, smoking a cigarette and leaning against a wall.
‘Hello, Riva,’ he said and offered her a cigarette.
She took one. More from nerves than because she really wanted one. She rarely smoked.
‘I’ve been hoping we might have a chat.’
‘What about?’ she said. ‘I mean, what about,sir?’
He smiled. ‘Glad to see you haven’t changed.’
She snorted. ‘Oh, but I have.’
‘I’m sorry. Truly. But let’s not quarrel. We were friends, weren’t we?’
So that’s what we’re calling it, she thought but didn’t say.
‘I’m heading for the RAF Officers’ Mess at the Xara Palace in Mdina. Like to accompany me? Maybe pop in to see Addison? We both have a two-day break, I believe, or will your boyfriend be upset if you leave Valletta?’
‘Boyfriend?’
‘Otto, isn’t it?’
She shook her head and laughed. ‘Otto’s not my boyfriend. I’m just staying in a room in his apartment,’ she said and saw a flash of relief on his face, although he hid it quickly.
‘So? Mdina?’
‘All right,’ she said despite her mind turning somersaults as it warned her to step away.
‘I have a staff car and a driver. But probably best if I drive. The RAF are a bit sticky when it comes to officers cavorting with the young ladies of Lascaris.’
‘One, I have no intention of cavorting and two, I’m hardly a young lady any more.’
‘You look exactly the same.’
‘I’ll soon be thirty-five, Bobby. There’s no way I’m just the same.’
‘Well, I don’t think they can object to two old friends having a drink together. Do you still stay in your apartment at Addison’s place? He told me all about it and your work on his books. They’ve been hugely successful.’
‘I was happy working with Addison.’
‘I’m surprised you weren’t spirited off to work in the publishing houses of London or New York.’
