O’Banion ducked through the hatch.
As Colonel Christopher strapped in, she said to Kaufman, “No competition from him.”
Kaufman grunted. Christopher could see that he was reluctant to turn control of the plane back to her.
Looking through the windshield, the colonel saw that they were back over the gray swirling storm that they had passed on the way to the Korean coast.
“Hope we don’t have to put down in that mess,” she said lightly.
Kaufman gave her a sour look. “Misawa reports it’s starting to rain there. We’ll be landing in the storm, looks like.”
Christopher shrugged. “Not much we can do about that—unless you want to head back to Elmendorf.”
Kaufman said nothing, but the expression on his face could have curdled milk.
Monk Delany was asleep when Harry stepped through the hatch to the beam control compartment. He was sitting in front of his main console, head lolling on his shoulder as the plane bounced and staggered through the air. Up here in the 747’s nose, the constant rise and fall of the plane was more noticeable than farther aft. The noise of the engines wasn’t as bad, but the shaking and shuddering caused by the damaged wing seemed more intense up here.
“Monk,” he called. “Hey, Monk. Wake up.”
Delany stirred and grumbled to himself. His eyes fluttered, then opened fully.
“Harry,” he said blearily. “Musta dozed off.”
“Yeah.” Harry sat in the chair next to the big engineer. “Monk, when we get back to Elmendorf, the Air Force police are going to dust that optics assembly for fingerprints.”
Delany shrugged. “My prints’ll be all over it. Hell, you know that, Harry.”
“Yeah. Your prints and nobody else’s.”
“So whoever took it wore gloves.”
“They’ll search the plane. And each one of us. They won’t find any gloves.”
Delany’s face clouded over. “What’re you telling me, Harry?”
“You took the lens assembly out of the ranger, Monk. Last night. You wormed your big ape arm into the housing and popped it out, nice and neat. Just the way you popped the replacement set into it.”
Glaring at Harry, Delany looked as if he wanted to answer but thought better of it.
“It was you, Monk,” Harry said quietly. “I know it was you.”
The big man’s eyes narrowed. For an instant Harry thought Delany was going to get violent. But then he put on his lopsided smile and said, “What the hell, Harry?”
“You’re not denying it?”
“I didn’t do any damage. We shot down the gook missiles, didn’t we? We’re all heroes.”
“Yeah. All of us—except Pete Quintana.”
Delany look startled. “What’s he got to do with this?”
“How’d the grease get into the oxygen line, Monk?”
“Now wait a minute!”
“You put it there,” Harry insisted. “You knew what would happen when the line was pressurized. You killed Pete.”
“Dumb spic shouldn’t’ve been out there. He shoulda come into the control room with the rest of us.”
“You let him get killed.”
“I warned him!” Delany shouted. “I told the dumb sonofabitch to get inside! You heard me!”
“You didn’t tell him the COIL was going to explode. You didn’t tell me to stop the test.”
“Tell you fuck! Who the hell are you? Chief of the test team! Why you, big shit? It shoulda been me!”
Harry felt the fury radiating from the big man. “I know,” he said softly. “I told you so when Anson picked me.”
“Anson! Big fucking asshole! You know why he picked you? Because he can push you around. He calls the tune and you do the dance.”
“And Pete burns to death.”
Delany jumped up out of his seat, making Harry twitch with surprise and sudden fear. Monk’s a big guy, Harry thought, remembering the way the big guys at school had always run roughshod over him. He’d learned to talk his way out of most trouble, but there were always gorillas who took special pleasure in beating up smaller guys who got As in class.
“So Pete’s dead,” Delany roared. “Whattaya want me to do about it?
Slowly, Harry rose to his feet. He barely reached to Monk’s nose.
“I know you didn’t intend to kill him,” Harry said, trying to placate Monk.
“Fucking right I didn’t!” Looming over Harry, Delany growled, “And you’re not going to say a word about this, buddy. Not to anybody. Understand?”
Before he could think of anything else to say, Harry heard himself reply, “Monk, I can’t keep this quiet. The colonel knows about the ranging laser.”
“So what? That’s all been fixed. No damage done.”
“We’ve got to know why you did it. Who paid you to do it.”
Delany slammed a big fist against the main console, making Harry flinch backward a step. “Dammit, Harry, you don’t hafta know anything! Not a damned thing! You got that?”
“Yes I do, Monk. But the Air Force will want to know. Mr. Anson will want to know. Pete’s widow, too.”
“Harry, I’m warning you! Drop it!”
“I wish I could, Monk.”
“But I can’t.”
Whirling, Harry saw Colonel Christopher standing in the compartment’s hatch. Monk stared at her, frozen, his mouth open, his hands balled into fists.
“From what Harry tells me, you’ll be charged with negligent homicide, I imagine,” the colonel said, her voice tight, her face hard and unforgiving.
“Now wait—” Harry began. He never got any further.
Delany gave out a strangled roar and grabbed Harry with one big hand, punched him squarely in the face with the other. Harry’s head snapped back. His nose spurted blood. He tried to push himself away, but Monk kept punching him.
Colonel Christopher sprang at Delany, kicked him in the knee, and chopped at the side of his bull neck. Monk dropped Harry and turned on her, but she ducked under his wild swing and deftly rammed a fist into his chest. A smaller man would have gone down, but Delany just grunted and reached for her.
Through a world of pain Harry saw the colonel jabbing at Monk’s eyes. Staggering to his feet, he punched with all his might at Monk’s side. Kidney punch, strictly illegal in boxing but the best defense Harry knew when being beaten up by a bigger guy.
Monk yowled and twisted backward. Colonel Christopher chopped with the side of her hand at Delany’s throat and the big man went down, gasping and floundering on the deck of the narrow compartment.
As Harry sank to his knees he saw another Air Force officer stepping through the hatch, the redheaded captain. No need, he thought. No need for reinforcements. He saw Colonel Christopher standing over Monk’s prostrate body like an Amazon warrior, her eyes blazing, every line of her face and body daring Monk to try to get up again.
