The Aviators

by W. E. B Griffin

  "If she's smart, your sister will come to you on bended knee and ask you to reconsider. If you want to, you can give them say, ninety days, to come up with a fair price-half of the two million three, in other words. Otherwise, according to the trust codicils, you own it-for three hundred thousand ~ change-thirty days after she signed for the registered letter."

  "What would I do with it?" Johnny asked very softly.

  "'Oh, you'd have no problem getting someone to take it off your hands. You could hire management. We'll cross ~ bridge when we get there. My guess is that as soon as she talks to a lawyer, she will come crawling. People will crawl long distances on their knees for' a million-odd dollars"

  "Jesus H. Christ!"

  "I told Mattingly to tell you what's going on. But he's in the Virgin Islands. Or Mexico. But trust his judgment, Johnny. He knows what he's doing."

  "Sir, this is all beyond me."

  "May I speak bluntly?"

  "Please do."

  "Your sister was trying to cheat you out of a million dollars. She got caught at it. "

  "That word upsets me," Oliver said. "It's unreal"

  " Cheat?" Lowell asked, chuckling. "Or 'a million dollars'? "

  "Both. "

  "You will be surprised how quickly you get used to having a million dollars," Lowell said. "Don't spend it all in one place, Johnny. I have to go."

  "Sir, thank you very much." Oliver hung up the phone and turned to face Liza.

  "Well?" she said. "What's unreal?" "A million dollars".

  There was concern on her face.

  In the movies, he thought, it wouldn't be like this. People would shout and scream-and jump around. I feel like somebody died.

  "What about a million dollars?" Liza asked.

  "According to Lowell, that's what my sister was trying to cheat me out of," he said. "And the reason she was so pissed was that Mattingly caught her at it."

  "Stop saying pissed," Liza said automatically. "Oh, Johnny, I'm so sorry for you. "

  "I guess I'm going to have to cry all the way to the bank."

  [TWO]

  The chimes of the Mrs. Elizabeth Wood residence played, slightly off-key

  "There's no place like home."

  "Who the hell can that be?" Oliver asked. He was sitting with Liza On the couch in the living room, slumped; down, a !!lass of scotch resting on his stomach. Allan was on the floor, trying to get a too-large red plastic block into a plastic glass.

  "Watch your mouth," she said, and left the couch and answered the door.

  "I hate to bother you," Bobby Bellmon's voice said "but I have to speak to Captain Oliver."

  "Come in," Liza said.

  "Thank you, no. Could you ask him to come to the door, please? "

  "Come in, Bobby, damn it!" Oliver called.

  "I'd like to see you alone for a moment, please, Captain Oliver. "

  "Oh, Jesus, Oh, darn," Oliver said, and got up and walked ~ the door. "'What's the matter, Bobby?"

  "Can I speak with you a moment privately?" Johnny exchanged a glance with Liza, then went outside and closed the door. It was like stepping into a steam bath.

  "OK. What?"

  "I want to know where my sister is," Bobby said.

  "1 don't really know. But I don't think I'd tell you if I did."

  "You're a disloyal sonofabitch, Oliver."

  "Thank you for the vote of confidence.

  " My sister is off no one knows where-fucking an enlisted man-and you probably think that's just fine."

  I don't know that, and neither do you. But if it were true, it's not any of your business, or mine."

  "You tell-me where she is or I will kick the living shit out of you. "

  "Your ass is showing, Bobby," Oliver said patiently, with a slight tone of disgust.

  Second Lieutenant Robert F. Bellmon, Jr., thereupon struck Captain John S. Oliver upon the face with his fist, causing Captain Oliver's lip to split and throwing him backward against the front door of the Wood residence.

  Liza Wood, hearing the heavy thump against her door, opened the door.

  She saw Captain Oliver stagger to his feet, muttering a foul obscenity. He then struck Lieutenant Bellmon's face and body ~ times with his fists, and this caused Lieutenant Bellmon, his nose bleeding to fall upon his back on the lawn and then become nauseated.

  "Johnny!" Liza called.

  "You dumb little shit!" Oliver said furiously, apparently not hearing her. He bent..over Lieutenant Bellmon.

  "Johnny, don't!" Liza screamed.

  He looked at her in confusion.

  "Help me get him in the house," Oliver said, hauling Bobby to his feet. "God, I hope I didn't break his nose."

  "What happened?" Liza said.

  "Go get some ice in a towel."

  "You sonofabitch," Bobby said, breathing heavily. "You miserable sonofabitch!" Jesus, he's going to cry!

  "You are in the Army, Lieutenant. I am a captain," Oliver said coldly. "You will shut your mouth and march into the house. That's an order."

  [THREE]

  123 Brookwood Lane

  Ozark, Alabama

  1505 Hours 12 July 1964

  "Funny," Liza Wood said to Johnny Oliver

  "you don't look like a man with a million dollars." Captain John S. Oliver, aide-de-camp to the commanding general of Fort Rucker, Alabama, was sitting on the concrete floor of the utility room at the end of Liza Wood's carport. He was wearing a pair of athletic shorts and a tom T-shirt, both of which were heavily stained with thick black grease.

  As were his face and hands. His forehead was. beaded with sweat, and there were large sweat damp areas on the T-shirt.

  In his lap were the parts of the mechanism which was supposed to drive Liza's washing machine. Sitting next to him, . similarly attired, and just about as filthy, was Allan.

  "That's probably because I don't have it yet," Johnny said as he took the glass of lemonade she held out to him. "Thank you." "Allan drink."

  "Allan says please, Allan gets," Johnny said. "Otherwise Allan can go suck a lemon. "

  "God, you look awful," Liza said. "It keeps getting bigger. I think you should go see a doctor. "

  "If and when I get this sonofa- gun back together, I'll put an ice pack on it. "

  "Please, Johnny,". Allan said.

  Allan extended the lemonade to Allan and held the glass as the child drank. "

  "Can you fix it?" Liza asked.

  "Probably not," he said. "But hope springs eternal."

  "Why don't you just give up and I'll call Sears tomorrow and have them fix it."

  "When I start something, I like to finish it" he said. "Give me another thirty minutes." . '" He took the glass back from Allan. Enough?" .

  "Nuf." Oliver handed the glass to Liza, said' 'Thank you" again, and then watched her legs as she walked back in the house. "Allan fix

  " Allan said, handing him a grease-soaked gear.

  "Well, you're way ahead of me, pal," Oliver said.

  He heard the telephone ring, but paid no attention to it until he heard the screen door from the kitchen to the drive-,;ray open.

  "It's for you," she said, and added

  "General Bellmon." He. pursed his lips and blew against them; there was a faint, shrill whistle.

  Allan tried to copy it but failed.

  "You finish fixing it while I'm gone, pal," Oliver said, and hoisted himself to his feet with a grunt.

  "You can't leave him here alone," Liza said.

  "Well, then, you pick him up-he's filthy," Oliver said, and went into the kitchen and took the wall phone from its ~ok.

  Well, what happens now? Has Bobby thought over that ridiculous, if painful, episode for forty-eight hours and decided ;:) manfully confess all to Daddy? Christ, I told him to forget :f Jesus, I hope General Bellmon doesn't try to thank me for not making a case out of it.

  "Captain Oliver, Sir," he said to the telephone.

  "I hate to break into your off-duty time, Johnny."


  "No problem, Sir."

  "This is not a secure line, Johnny, so this may sound a little vague."

  "Yes, Sir?"

  "Sandy's having a little party down at the Gulf. I said I couldn't get away and he suggested that you fill in for me." What the hell does that mean?

  "Yes, Sir?"

  "I told him that was fine with me, and then he asked if you could pick him and Red up. Sandy's with Red. And then take the both of them to the Gulf. "

  "Yes, Sir," Oliver said. "When, Sir?"

  "I.. think it would probably 'be best if you went over there this afternoon. Would that be possible?"

  "Yes, Sir."

  "They'll be waiting for you, and they'll fill you in on the details. And then, when you get here, you can bring me up to date on what's happened."

  "Yes, Sir. Sir, I'm about to have dinner. "

  "Well, don't let this interfere with that. Just so long as you get over there sometime today. "

  "Yes, Sir."

  "I'm sorry to do this to you, Johnny, but these things come up."

  "No problem, Sir." When he turned from the telephone, Liza was standing there, watching him, holding Allan on her hip.

  "You got your dress all dirty," Oliver said.

  "Tell me about it," she said. "Well?" "I've got to go to Fort Bragg."

  "Today?"

  "After I've had dinner."

  "That's funny," Liza said. "I would have thought that a man with a million dollars could take Sunday afternoon off like a real human being instead of flying halfway across the country on ten minutes' notice at some general's whim." He met her eyes.

  "That's what happens if you're a soldier. "

  "Really?" she asked sarcastically. "And you're a super soldier, right, so that means you work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week?"

  "So it starts again, huh? I wondered how long it would be before it did."

  "When you look back on this in your later years," Liza said

  "please remember that it started before your million dollars. Whether or not you are spending those sunset years with me."

  "I don't suppose you would be interested in taking a shower with Allan and me? I'll let you play with my rubber duckie." Liza handed Allan to him.

  "You got him dirty, you get him clean," she said.

  "Or anything else of mine YQU would like to play with."

  "You're wrong, Johnny, if you think you're getting to me through Allan. That backfired on you. I told you once: I have no intention of telling him next week, or five years from now, that 'Sorry, Johnny won't be coming home anymore.' "

  "Johnny go bye-bye?"

  "Just as far as the shower, kid," Oliver said. "Hey, people get killed by falling out of bed. "

  "Not out of my bed, they don't," Liza said.

  "You'd feel differently if you were old, fat, and flatchested. "

  "No, I wouldn't," Liza said sadly. "Be careful when you wash your lip. You don't want to get it infected on top of everything else."

  XIX

  [ONE]

  Pope Air Force Base,

  North Carolina

  1945 Hours 12 July 1964

  Johnny Oliver parked the U-8 on the transient ramp, shut it down, and dealt with the Air Force ramp crew. He was wearing a flight suit under a nylon zipped jacket.

  A very tall, very thin, Green Grunt captain, a black guy, in fatigues and field jacket, was waiting for him.

  "You are the airplane for General Hanrahan?" the Green Grunt asked after Oliver climbed down, having reclaimed a zipper bag containing a Class A uniform and some extra shirts from the back seat of the V-8.

  "No, actually, I'm the pilot," Oliver said, smiling, and offering his hand. "The airplane is that thing with the propellers."

  "Where's the dog-robber?" the Green Grunt captain asked, ignoring the hand. "You were supposed to be here by 1700 with the dog-robber."

  "Are you constipated, Captain, or are you always this cheerful and charming?"

  "I asked you a question."

  "I'm General Bellmon's aide-de-camp, if that's what you're asking. If you heard. I was supposed to be here by five, you were misinformed. "

  "General Hanrahan doesn't like to be kept waiting."

  "Few people do," Oliver said. "But sometimes that's the way the ball bounces."

  "I've got a pickup truck outside Base Operations."

  "Where are we going?"

  "Camp Mackall," the Captain said.

  "What's going on out there?"

  "You'll find out when you get there," the Captain said.

  "You get in the habit around here of not asking too many questions."

  "I'll show you my Top Secret clearance if you show me yours," Oliver said.

  "Top Secret won't cut it around here." The pickup truck, painted in camouflage colors and equipped with GI headlights, had an unusual number of radios installed. As soon as he started the engine, the Captain picked up a microphone.

  "Piano, Piano Nine," he said.

  "Go. "

  "The dog-robber just got here."

  "Hold one," the reply came. There was a ninety-second delay while they backed away from the Base Operations building and started to leave Pope Air Force Base. Pope abuts the Fort Bragg military reservation. "He wants to know if the aircraft is all right."

  The Captain looked at Oliver.

  "The Airplane's fine," Oliver said.

  "Piano, he says the airplane's fine."

  "Hold one," the reply came, and then a moment later, He said to bring him out here."

  "On the way," the Captain replied. He hung up the microphone.

  They were moving by then down a two-lane macadam road.

  It was growing dark, but Oliver could see known-distance rifle and machine-gun ranges on his right. "Is Camp Mackall a secret or what?" Oliver asked.

  "We just don't talk about it much," the Captain said.

  "Let's try something safe. Captain, I don't suppose you happen to know a guy named Father Lunsford, do you? A black guy?"