O’Hara let out a long low whistle and tried to restore some order to his thinking. Too much was happening in too short a time, and the girl’s story was too fantastic. An atomic bomb was fine material for the Sunday magazine sections but—Still, what was Hawkins doing riding herd on him so deep in enemy territory? He had to be sure and there was one quick way to find out.
He switched on his transmitter and called upstairs. “Hey, Fancy Pants.”
“Yeah?” came the answer in a moment.
“There’s something about this deal that stinks. I think it might be a good idea if we all headed back for base and dumped the whole thing in the lap of the Commies. If they want to send those crates back to the Spanish, O.K., but I think it might be a good idea to let them make the decision.” He banked the Hydra gently until his nose was pointing toward the west and waited to see what would happen.
The result was instantaneous. “Get back on course!” shouted Hawkins. “And if I don’t?”
“We’ll blow you out of the sky.”
“Looks like you’re top dog, Fancy Pants,” said Jack as he obediently turned back in the direction of the strip that was now only two miles away. “But just as a matter of curiosity, how come you and your boys are working for the Spanish? I was sort of under the impression that M and S had signed a contract with the Portuguese.”
“You aren’t paid to have impressions; you just do what you’re told and don’t talk back.”
Jack didn’t reply. He just reached forward and switched off his radio. “Looks like you were right,” he said to the girl behind him. “You got a full drum in that Gatling?”
She nodded.
“Then let’s see if you can do something with it this time beside make noise.” He reached for the wing retractor control. As he jerked it back to Emergency In he shouted, “By the way, kid, if I don’t see you again on this side, it’s been nice knowing you.” With that he jerked savagely back on the stick and hit the igniters on one of his two remaining banks of rockets.
THERE WAS a quiet peace to the Hydra’s slow circling within the great cloud that hung directly over Largos, but death waited outside in the bright sunshine where Hawkins and his five ships soared on long wings, waiting for Jack to come out.
“How long have we been in now?” asked the girl quietly.
“About five minutes.”
“How much longer are we good for?”
“As long as the cloud lasts,” he said. “There are always updrafts at the top of a cumulus; we can keep riding them indefinitely.”
“And the others?”
“They’re outside waiting for us. And six to one isn’t good odds. Those boys are good—even Fancy Pants—M and S wouldn’t hire them if they weren’t. In fact, it’ll probably be twenty to one before too long. I’ve go-t a hunch that Hawkins radioed to Rommell to send every available plane.” She looked out into the grey nothingness that surrounded the slowly wheeling ship. “But we can’t stay here forever; we’ve got to get to Lanares.”
“Any suggestions as to how that is to be done? Once we stick our nose outside this cover we’re going to get clobbered—but good!”
He sat waiting for her answer. When she didn’t, he asked, “What’s the big attraction in Lanares? There are half a dozen free ports closer.”
“Our men are there,” she said briefly. “Once they have one of those atomic bombs we’re carrying for evidence, they’ll be able to stop both Rommell and the Spanish Government in a hurry.”
“Who is this we you keep talking about? The we that forged Hawkins signature to that order slip? The we that highjacked the first two bombs that came off the assembly line? The we that’s waiting for us in Lanares?” Instead of answering she reached in her pocket and pulled out a worn leather case. She flipped it open and passed it over to him. He looked at it curiously, blinked, and then looked again. He gave a low whistle. “Combat Control Commission! Why didn’t you tell me you were a Commie in the first place?”
She gave a tired grin. “And if I had, what would you have done?”
It was his turn to grin. His was a sheepish, embarrassed one. “Gone back to bed, I guess; the farther I can stay away from the Commies—present company expected, of course—the better I like it. Everytime I see a CCC agent it means a fine for something or other.”
“Not this time. You’ll get your mileage—and your bonus. And our apologies, of course. This had to be a one man job. The CCC doesn’t have any combat ships, and it doesn’t have pilots like you; we had to have somebody, so you got elected.”
A thinning of the whiteness ahead told Jack that he was almost at the edge of the cloud; he banked sharply and swung back to safety. Keeping the Hydra concealed was a tricky job—the whole top of the cloud was a turbulent series of updrafts that threatened momentarily to throw the ship up and out of its protective blanket. He had been forced to retract the wings to reduce the lift to the point where it just balanced the weight of the plane.
“If, and when,” he said, “and just between the two of us I don’t see how we’re ever going to break out of here alive—anyway, if and when we ever get to Lanares, what then?”
“Now that we have concrete evidence, we can appeal to the World Council for action.”
“And if they take any, Spain would promptly veto it, claiming that it was unwarranted infringement in her internal affairs. What then?”
She ran her fingers through her close cropped hair. “Well,” she said thoughtfully, “I suppose the next step would be to appoint an investigating commission to see whether or not the veto was legitimate.”
Jack snorted. “And how long would that take?”
“About a month, I suppose. But then if it were discovered that Spain was engaged in any illegal activity, and she refused to stop it, the Council would advertise for bids for a punitive force to intervene and take necessary action. Once we got to that stage there wouldn’t be any trouble. Rommell and M and S wouldn’t dare resist; there would be a mass revocation of licenses if they did.”
JACK SNORTED again. “And what’s the factory down there going to be doing while all this is going on? You don’t have to answer, because you know the answer as well as I do. The whole plant will be working twenty-four hours a day turning out atomic bombs while the diplomats are having a ball arguing the case. A month of leeway would give the Spanish enough time to produce enough bombs to take care of every major city in the world. Before the Council ever gets around to advertising for a military contractor, the Spanish will let loose with an ultimatum that will stop everything cold.”
She looked at him uncertainly. “We expected some delay, but we hoped the Spanish government would listen to reason once they realized what kind of evidence we had against them.”
Jack gave a short bark of a laugh. “In the first place, they already know that the cat is out of the bag; that’s why our hungry friends are waiting for us outside. And in the second—” he tilted the nose of the Hydra down in order to glide out of an updraft that threatened to lift the ship up into the bright morning sunshine where Hawkins and his men were waiting—“and in the second, we aren’t about to get to Lanares to give the Commission the evidence it needs. As long as we stay in this cloud we’re safe; but once we stick our nose outside we’re going to get blown out of the air. We can’t stay up here forever, you know. Give me a while to think about it, will you?”
The girl behind him started to protest and then shut up as she realized the hopelessness of their situation.
“Got it!” Jack bared his teeth in an ugly grin. “Is there any way you can arm one of those bombs?”
“I should be able to. I helped design them. But they’re stowed away in the bomb bay. We’d have to land before I could get at them. Under the circumstances that doesn’t seem practical.”
“There’s another way. See that curved metal plate right between your feet?”
She looked down. “The one with the wing nut at each corner?”
“Right. Loosen the
nuts, slide the plate back, and you’ll find an emergency entrance to the bomb bay. Once you’ve got it open, here’s what you’re to do . . .”
6
FIVE MINUTES went by before the girl finally tapped Jack on the shoulder. “It’s armed,” she said in a tight voice.
The pilot nodded and switched on his communication set. “Hawkins? This is O’Hara.”
The answer came at once. “What’s the matter, getting hungry for a little sunshine?” There was a jeering quality to the air foreman’s voice. “There’s lots of it out here.”
“I know,” said Jack quietly. “I’m coming out to get some.”
“Fine, you’ll have lots of company. Twenty Rommell ships pulled in a couple of minutes ago to help escort you in for a landing. We were going to come in after you, but this makes it easier.”
“Just one little thing.” O’Hara paused for emphasis. “You know what I have in my bomb bay, don’t you?”
“Hell, yes; what do you think all the fuss is about?”
“I’ve managed to arm one of them. You might pass the word along that the first time somebody comes in on me, I’m going to set it off.”
There was a strangled squawk from the speaker. The theoretical specifications for an atomic bomb had been kicking around for years, and most of the professionals were familiar with them. “You’re crazy!” said Hawkins.
“Sure I am. But since I’m going to get it one way or the other, I might as well make it spectacular.”
Without waiting for an answer he pulled in his wings, kicked on his last bank of rockets, and came roaring out of the cloud. “Remember,” he shouted into his microphone, “one shot and I’m off—and every mother’s son of you goes with me!”
There were brave men in twenty-six rocket gliders that rode the updrafts above the great cumulus cloud, but they were also professionals. They fought for pay and the fun of it, but it was more fun if one lived to spend one’s pay. They all expected to die some day—death rode beside them every time they went into combat—but they all sat silently and watched as the Hydra climbed away from them into the high thin air. No bonus was big enough to cause a man to deliberately commit suicide.
The Hydra streaked over the sprawling factory at thirty thousand feet. It slowed momentarily from the increased drag as the bomb bay door opened and a long crate tumbled out, and then lightened, lept ahead as it closed again. Down the crate curved, in a long parabola, and then suddenly slowed as the ribbon chute that had been fastened to it snapped open and blossomed above it like a huge thistledown.
The Hydra was shielded behind the first range of mountains when a bursting sun flare flashed up behind them. They sat and watched as a mushroom shaped cloud slowly climbed until it was as high as they were, and then Jack said in a shaky voice, “If it’s all right with you, I think we’d better get on toward Lanares.”
He hoped the others—even Hawkins—had been far enough away to escape. A man should have some control over the way of his death. If he went down in combat, at least he had come into it of his own free will knowing the chance he was taking. But this—this was something no man had a right to hurl against another. He shook his head as if to clear it of its ugly thoughts and concentrated on getting his wings out.
THE FREE PORT of Lanares could be seen far in the distance when Jack relaxed at last and stopped worrying about the next updraft. He had enough free air underneath so that a flat glide would take him in easily. He turned and said to his gunner in a tired voice, “Nobody can say it hasn’t been a busy day, but it looks like we finally made it. That’s Lanares up ahead;
we’re only about ten minutes out.”
She was staring blindly at the floor. There were tears in her eyes. “I keep thinking what happened back there,” she said in a dead voice. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sleep again. There were people down there, innocent people.”
“You couldn’t help it. It had to be done.”
“I could help it,” she said bitterly. “I helped design that hell bomb.” Her voice trailed off.
“Go ahead.”
“I’m a physicist, a nuclear physicist and a good one. The only thing I cared anything about was my work, and when the Spanish Government offered me a problem and unlimited funds for research I couldn’t resist. It wasn’t until my part was finished, and the production machinery was already being installed, that the implications of what I had helped create slowly began to dawn on me—that what had been for me an engrossing problem was actually a weapon that was to be used against people.
“I had to run away—they wouldn’t let me quit. The mountains are no place for a person who doesn’t know them, and I was half dead when I was picked up by a band of Republican guerrillas.”
Jack looked puzzled. “Guerrillas? What kind of guerrillas?”
“Republican, political refugees from the present regime. They have a few guns and a lot of tenacity.”
“Civilians have no business with guns. If they want to fight, let them go hire a company the way everybody else does!”
“They did; that’s why they’re refugees. Eighty percent of the population were for the Republican government; but the other side had the money and were able to hire twice as big a force.”
Jack’s face cleared. “I remember now, but that’s ancient history.”
“Not for the Republicans, it isn’t.”
“What happened was their own fault; that Russian outfit they hired couldn’t punch its way out of a paper bag.”
“It was all they could afford. That’s the trouble with the whole mercenary system. The rights or wrongs have nothing to do with the conclusion of a dispute; it’s the side that can afford to hire the best in men and equipment that usually comes out on top.”
Jack started to bristle. “At least the civilians don’t have to fight, and their cities aren’t bothered.”
“Switch to the past tense,” snapped the girl. “Remember what happened today?”
He didn’t press the point. “Go ahead.”
“The Republicans got me out of the country and I went to the Combat Control Commission. They’re a decent bunch, but the companies have never let them have any real power. The Commission was set up by the World Council to keep order in the industry. But all that they can do is to send ground observers and a few recon planes into a designated area to try and catch any violations of the particular combat agreement the companies concerned are operating under.”
“Damn sneaks,” growled Jack. “I got socked a five hundred credit fine last job I was on just because I took off a few minutes before the official zero hour.” He caught himself and motioned her to continue.
THE COMMISSION didn’t dare to complain to the World Council until they had something concrete in the way of evidence; once the matter was made public, Spain’s hand would have been forced. So somebody had to get in there and come out with an actual bomb. The Spanish Republicans were only too eager to cooperate and a raid was arranged. Since the success of the whole plan depended on surprise, we decided that a single plane would have a better chance to get through than several. The job then was to find a really good combat pilot. All the best ones were under contract, and time was so short that we had to resort to a certain amount of trickery. So we did.” She looked at him solemnly. “My apologies, Mr. O’Hara; I’m afraid we cost you your job.”
He yawned and stretched. “Right now I’m too tired to worry about it. What’s the next step? Is the Commission going to try to get the Council to outlaw the companies?”
“They’d like to—but if it came to a showdown, the chances are that the companies would outlaw the Council.” She sighed. “Let’s face it, Jack. Until we get a real world government instead of an international debating society, we’re going to have countries squabbling over territories and special concessions like a lot of greedy kids. The companies are the only answer we have so far. At least, only a few thousand men are involved on each side and the fighting is restricted to a small area so no ci
vilians get hurt.”
“I think you’ve overlooked something,” said Jack thoughtfully as he dipped down toward the long runway that lay only a half a mile ahead. “You’ve scotched one snake, but there are going to be others. Now that it is known that an atom bomb is practical, there will be other countries trying to follow Spain’s example; and much as I hate to admit it about my own profession, other companies to throw in with them.”
“Not with what we’ve got in the bomb bay,” she said grimly. “The Control Commission is going to have teeth for a change. We’re going to get together a force of the best combat pilots and the best planes we can get our hands on, and the first company or country that starts playing around with atomic energy is going to get it the way Largos did.” She stamped one foot down on the emergency hatch that opened into the bomb bay where the second bomb rested. “With this baby hanging over their heads, I’ve got a hunch they’ll never dare try.”
As the runway came slowly up to meet them, Jack dropped his landing gear. A moment later the the wheels touched smoothly and the Hydra rolled toward a small knot of excited men who wore the brown uniforms of the Combat Control Commission.
“By the way,” the girl said casually, “the Commission could use a man like you.”
He didn’t look around. “That’s interesting.”
Two little arms suddenly hugged him around the neck and a pair of soft lips brushed one tanned cheek. “I could, too,” she whispered. “Come around tonight and we’ll see if we can work out a contract.”
“Sub-contract,” said O’Hara gruffly. “I’m an independent operator. I work my own time and according to my own judgement.”
There was an impish look in her eyes as her arms closed tighter about him. “We’ll go into that later,” she purred.
Collected Fiction Page 40