Don't touch!
Dex
He yanked the lever anyway. A panel dropped open in the Warhawk's belly, and a sharp grappling hook shot out, dangling behind them on a reinforced cable.
With a clang, the hook wrapped around one of the exterior girders of the building framework. Suddenly anchored like a ball on a string, the plane swung about with its own momentum, making an impossible turn. The grappling hook disengaged at the end of the spin, dropping away.
Sky Captain didn't breathe. Nearly crushed by centrifugal force, he held on as his plane just cleared the building. It nicked a lighted theater marquee, popping a string of decorative bulbs. The sparking explosions ignited the gasoline dripping from the leaky fuel line. Fire began to lick up along the tube.
Polly stared out the window, too stunned to show any panic or excitement. She observed the burning plane matter-of-factly. 'Joe…'
'I know, Polly. I know.'
Tracking him down from a web of side streets and avenues, the full squadron of Flying Wings suddenly appeared. Gunfire flickered from their wing cannons.
Sky Captain swerved to avoid another skyscraper, then began to climb to rooftop level as his plane trailed smoke. Time for another crazy plan. Atop the towering buildings, he spotted what he had expected: a pair of mammoth water towers, cisterns stored for emergency consumption.
'Hang on.' He shot at the nearest water tower, splintering its wood-slat side. Water streamed out, and Sky Captain flew straight for the gushing fountain, ducking into the spray. The sudden drenching doused the flames on his fuel line. He soared onward as water splashed away from his windshield and his wings.
Sharp silver wings pumping in pursuit, the enemy aircraft followed closely behind them. The plane streaked along the contour of the rooftop, past a giant motorized sign, then dipped nose-first back to the street below.
Polly suddenly saw something. 'There!'
Below them, the primary Wing flew along, thinking it had escaped. Seeing his target, Sky Captain rocketed toward the machine just as the three pursuit Wings descended behind him. Sparks from enemy bullets danced along the Warhawk's fuselage. The leaky fuel line burst into flames again.
Sky Captain glanced back at the burning wing of his aircraft. 'Yeah, right. A shortcut.'
'I got us here, didn't I?'
12
An X on the Map. The Mysterious Woman Returns. A Watery End
Ducking from the crashing battle that continued in the skies above the Flying Legion base, Dex strained to listen to the chatter from Sky Captain's radio. He could hear the shouts, the chase, the gunfire in the background.
With charts strewn all over the table, he marked point after point on the world map as the signals came in. His oscilloscope displayed converging patterns. Dex unwrapped another wad of bubble gum and nervously popped it into his mouth, just to calm himself.
'Tell me you got something, Dex!' Sky Captain's ragged voice came over the loudspeaker. 'We're getting clobbered up here.'
Meanwhile, the attacking batlike Wings bombarded the base's power station, and a surge of electricity shot out from the oscilloscope's control panel. Sparks flew, but Dex shunted circuits, trying to get the signal back. Muffled explosions and high-caliber gunfire rattled the main hangar. Gaps of smoke-stained sky shone through holes in the corrugated roof.
'It's no picnic down here either, Cap,' he shouted into the microphone. 'Hang in there. We've almost got it.'
Sky Captain and Polly continued down the one-way street after the primary Wing, desperate not to lose its tracking signal. The three pursuing Wings closed in behind the P-40, only a few plane lengths to the rear.
Unexpectedly, the primary Wing backflapped its metal wings and plunged toward the street, intentionally stalled in the air. Sky Captain's Warhawk swept past, narrowly missing it. 'Awww, a kid pilot's trick and I fell for it!'
Its feint successful, the primary Wing gathered itself and climbed back up, shooting furiously at the Warhawk's tail. Now four of the attacking craft hammered away at Sky Captain.
'At least we don't have to worry about losing the primary Wing now,' Polly said. 'He's right on our tail.'
Sky Captain yelled into his microphone. 'Dex!'
'Thirty seconds, Cap. That's all I need.'
'Thirty seconds?' How could the young man sound so calm?
'Plus or minus…'
Polly leaned over Sky Captain's shoulder and grabbed the microphone out of his hand. Bullets pinged into the plane, sparking off the rudder and the fuselage. She clicked the transmit button. 'Dex hon?'
'Yeah, Polly?' Dex answered, his voice bright.
'Hurry!'
Sky Captain snatched the microphone from her hand. 'I'm going to lead them out over the water to try and buy us some time.' He turned back to Polly, who looked breathless and overwhelmed in the back of the cockpit. 'I tried to warn you. Still glad you came?'
Sky Captain pulled back on his flight stick as he rocketed through Times Square. The Warhawk shook and groaned as it shot high into the clouds, away from the streets of Manhattan.
Still firing, the Flying Wings closed in.
At the Legion's besieged base, searchlights scanned the heavens while shells exploded all around. The entire landing field and most of the hangars were ablaze as more batlike machines descended. The Flying Legion could barely hold its own as their planes circled and charged, guns blazing, in a desperate dogfight over their own turf.
With all the chaos, Dex had a hard time concentrating on his charts as technicians shouted out coordinates. 'Thirty degrees, bearing zero zero five!'
Dex continued to mark lines on the map with a compass, pressing the point into the paper, sketching careful arcs. With each new coordinate, he drew the circle closer and closer to the vital position of the controlling signal.
Suddenly, a soot-stained Legion officer raced in, glancing from side to side until his gaze settled on Dex. 'We can't hold them off any longer. We have to evacuate the base.'
Dex stood his ground even as the building began to collapse around him. With a groan, a large chunk of the roof bent inward, dangling by a few ragged strips of metal. 'Not yet. I'm almost there.'
'There's no time, Dex! We have to go now!'
'Go ahead without me. I'm right behind you, but I don't intend to let Cap down.'
Some of the technicians fled, while two remained at their stations, shouting out one more coordinate and then another, until Dex had isolated a tiny spot on the map. He drew an X through mountainous, barely charted terrain. 'Got you!' Then he shouted into his microphone, 'Joe, I found him! Joe!'
Dex's grin was short-lived as a massive explosion rocked the control room, a direct hit from one of the attacking Wings. He grabbed for the map, crinkling the paper in his fingers as he went flying. Everything spun, tumbled, crashed. He struck the cement floor hard, wincing as his ribs and shoulder absorbed the shock.
Shaking his head, Dex looked down to see that he still clutched a small piece of map he'd torn from the larger chart as he fell. At least it was the section with the X drawn on it.
As he listened to the roar of flames and collapsing debris all around him, Dex tried to move, but looked
