“Oh,Jesus. They’re firing at the engines from the side doors. They’re going to bring us down that way.”
“If they don’t ignite all the fuel in the wings beforehand!” Wizard called.
More distant gunfire.
“Shit, shit, shit…” Zoe said.
Gripping the pilot’s control yoke, she could feel the plane becoming less responsive.
There’s no way out of this,she thought.You can’t stop someone intent on bringing your plane down this way.
“We’re screwed,” she said aloud.
As if in answer to her comment, her radio abruptly crackled.
“Zoe! Is that you in the Clipper? It’s Sky Monster!”
“Sky Monster!” Zoe grabbed a headset. “Yes, it’s us! Where are you!”
“I’m right above you,”came the reply.
AS THE BIG Clipper seaplane soared over the jungle, an even larger plane swung in low above it, descending from a higher altitude.
The Halicarnassus.
“Sorry it took me so long to get here,”Sky Monster said. “Had to go via Kenya!”
“How did you find us?” Lily asked.
“We’ll discuss that later!” Zoe said. “Sky Monster, we’ve got a bunch of angry passengers downstairs who are trying to bring our bird down from the inside! We need extraction, pronto!”
“Roger that. I see you got no windshield. Are you all mobile?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s do a dog-sniffer. Zoe, power up to four hundred knots and then send everyone over.”
“Gotcha.”
“What’s a dog-sniffer?” Lily asked.
“You’ll see,” Zoe said, turning sharply.
More gunshots were echoing out from downstairs.
The two planes flew over the Congo jungle in formation, the massive 747 looming above the smaller Clipper seaplane.
Then The Halicarnassus powered forward in front of the Clipper and, with its rear loading ramp open, lowered itself in front of the seaplane’s smashed cockpit.
From her position inside the Clipper’s cockpit, Zoe saw the Hali ’s enormous tail section lower into place in front of her, filling her field of vision.
Its rear loading ramp yawned before her, bare yards in front of her own plane’s nose cone.
“OK, Sky Monster!” she yelled in her mike. “Hold her there, I’ll bring us forward and send everyone over!”
Zoe then powered up and edged the seaplane closer to The Halicarnassus ’s rear ramp, until the Clipper’s nose was literally scraping against the edge of the ramp.
Then she yelled, “OK! Wizard, grab Lily, Ono, and Dr. Cassidy, and go!”
Wizard didn’t need to be told twice.
He quickly slid up over the cockpit dashboard and stood out on the nose of the Clipper, in the battering wind,between the two flying planes!
He pulled Lily, Ono, and Cassidy out after him, and after a few hurried steps across the nose of the Clipper, they hopped up onto the rear ramp of the Hali and found themselves standing in the relative calm of the 747’s rear hold.
This left Zoe alone in the cockpit of the seaplane.
She hit autopilot and left the controls, sliding up and out onto the nose cone just as the Neetha managed to hit another of her engines and it exploded and the entire plane lurched wildly.
Too far gone to go back now, Zoe jumped, diving for the Hali ’s rear ramp at the exact moment that the seaplane beneath her just fell away, banking downward at an extreme angle.
Zoe landed awkwardly, her forearms banging on the edge of the ramp, her fingers clutching for a hydraulic strut but missing, and to her utter horror she felt herself drop off the edge of the ramp and fall into the wide blue sky…
…at which point no fewer than three sets of hands grabbed her outstretched arms.
Wizard, Lily, and Ono.
All three of them had seen her leap from the flailing seaplane, seen her clasp the hydraulic strut with one hand, and then seen her grip begin to falter.
And so all three of them had lunged to her rescue, diving for her outstretched hands at the same time.
Now they held her, together, while far beneath Zoe the pilotless Clipper seaplane veered wildly downward
