 |
 |
|
|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] All under control, he answered. Fuel OK? Fine.More than 2,000 pounds. Keep checking it, Joe said quietly. You may be losing a little. Then the sick panic returned and no more that day would it leave. Impeded by heavy gear he tried to look aft but couldn t. Straining himself he saw fleetingly from the corner of his eye a thin wisp of white vapor trailing in the black sky. Knocking his goggles away he tried to look again and his peripheral vision spied the dusty vapor, no thicker than a pencil. Joe, he called quietly. That looks like a fuel leak. Don t your gauges show it? Don t seem to. You ll make the sea all right, Joe said, and both men surrendered any idea of the ship. I ll make the sea, Harry said. Page 47 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html I ll trail you, Joe called. In a few minutes he said, You re losing fuel pretty fast, Harry. There was no longer any use to kidhimself . Yeah. Now the instruments show it. Joe drew his slim blue jet quite close to Harry s and the two men looked at one another as clearly as if they had been across a table in some bar. I still think you ll make the sea, Joe said. But Harry knew that merely reaching the sea wasn t enough. How far out must we go in Wonsan harbor to miss the communist mines? he asked. Joe ruffled through some papers clipped to his knee and replied, You ought to go two miles. But you ll make it, Harry. The turbine blade that had sliced into the fuel line now broke loose and allowed a heavy spurt of gasoline to erupt so that Joe could clearly see it. You re losing gas pretty fast now, he said. There was a sad drop on the fuel gauge and Harry said, Guess that does it. To prevent explosion, he immediately killed his good engine and felt the Banshee stutter in midair, as if caught by some enormous hand. Then, at 250 miles an hour, he started the long and agonizing glide which carried him ever nearer to the sea and always lower toward the mountains. Quickly Joe cut his own speed and said, We better call the word. With crisp voice Brubaker announced.the strange word which by general consent across the world has come to mean disaster. In Malaya, in China, over Europe or in the jungle airports of the Amazon this word betokens final catastrophe: Mayday, Mayday. It was heard by communist monitors and by the officers in Task Force 77. Aloft, Cag heard it and turned his jets back to keep watch upon their stricken member. And aboard the scow the newly reported helicopter team of Mike Forney and Nestor Gamidge heard it. Mayday, Mayday. Silently, through the upper reaches of the sky, the two men flew side by side. They had never been particularly friendly, for their interests and ages varied, nor had they talked much, but now in the dark violet sky with sunlight gleaming beneath them on the hills of Korea they began their last urgent conversation, their faces bright in Plexiglas and their voices speaking clear through the vast emptiness of the space. We ll make the sea, Joe said reassuringly. I m sure going to try. They drifted down to the sunny spaces of the sky, into the region of small cloud and laughing shadow and Joe asked, Now when we reach the sea will you parachute or ditch? I ditched once, I ll do it again. Page 48 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html I never asked you, how does the Banshee take the water? Fine, if you keep the tail down. Remember to jettison your canopy, Harry. I don t aim to be penned in. Six more minutes will put us there. So they fought to the sea. As if caught in the grip of some atavistic urge that called them back to the safety of the sea after the millions of years during which men had risen from this element, these two pilots nursed their jets away from inhospitable land and out toward the open sea. They were low now and could spot communist villages and from time to time they saw bursts of communist guns, so they fought to reach the sea. But they did not make itFor looming ahead of them rose the hills in back of Wonsan harbor. Between the jets and the sea stood these ugly hills and there was no way to pass them. Instinctively Harry shoved the throttle forward to zoom higher only a couple of hundred feet, even fifty might do but relentlessly the stricken Banshee settled lower. From the adjoining plane Joe pointed to the obstructing hills and Harry said, I see them. I won t make it. Joe asked, Now, Harry, are you going to jump or crash land! [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |