He sat down at the table. “Would you like some tea?”
Karin shook her head and settled into the chair across the table from him. “I’ve asked to rejoin my squadron.”
“What?”
That means I must move back to the barracks,” she rushed on, “so I can be ready to fly at an instant’s notice.”
That’s pretty heavy,” Mick said at last.
Karin leaned forward to put her hand on his arm. “It won’t be that bad. There’ll still be time to see each other and I’ll only be at ready six or seven days out of ten.”
“You know that’s not what’s worrying me.” Well, not the main thing, he thought.
She hesitated. “Mick, we lost too many riders to the zombies. We need every dragon and every experienced rider now.”
Mick didn’t say anything.
“This is not like the machines you flew. It is no more dangerous than riding horseback.”
And how many people have been killed falling off horses? But he didn’t say it.
“There’s a big operation coming up,” he said finally.
“And you thought I would stay out of it?” The color drained from her cheeks and she pressed her lips together in a tight line. “What do you think I am? Did you honestly believe I would desert my mates at a time like this?”
Gilligan gave her his best winsome, little-boy smile. “Well, I could hope.”
As soon as he said it he knew it was wrong. Karin went even whiter and stood up so fast she almost knocked the chair over.
“I must return to my squadron,” she said woodenly. “I will be back later for my things.”
Gilligan opened his mouth to apologize, to say the words that would make her stay. But there were no words, so he just nodded and looked at his hands.
Sometimes it’s worth freezing your buns off just to be alone. Jerry stood on the battlements and stared off into the night. The stars were back again, shining like bright, hard bits of metal in a crystal clear sky. The air smelled of cold and nothing else. Even the sounds were gone.
Jerry slipped one hand out of the relative warmth of his heavy cloak and pulled the fur-trimmed hood closer around his nose. The fur smelled faintly of cedar even in the nose-numbing cold. He made no move to go back in.
So stand to your glasses steady… This world is a world full of lies.
It was Charlie, obviously very much the worse for wear. From the way he was staggering Jerry was afraid he was going to fall off the walkway into the courtyard two stories below.
He was bareheaded and wearing only his flight suit and flying jacket; not even gloves. The old pilot must be freezing in this weather but he seemed too full of drink and his own concerns to notice.
“How ya doin’?” he slurred as he came up to Jerry.
“Okay,” Jerry said neutrally, hoping he’d take the hint.
He didn’t “I got my ears pinned back good an’ proper tonight,” Charlie told him with an air of alcoholic confession. “I butted into something that wasn’t my affair, squadron business, and I got what I damn well deserved.”
Jerry nodded and didn’t say anything.
“A squadron’s like a family, son. There’s times outsiders are welcome and there’s times they ain’t. Forget that and you’re gonna get slapped down.”
Some comment seemed called for. “You must have run into that in Vietnam,” Jerry said.
Charlie leaned on the parapet and stared out into the freezing night.
“I wasn’t in Vietnam,” the old man said softly. “Hell son, I didn’t learn to fly until I was thirty-two.” He turned back to look at Terry.
“You know what I was? I was an accountant. A goddamn accountant! But I got lucky and I was in the right place at the right time and when we went public I walked away with nearly twelve million bucks.
“A good chunk of that went to my second wife, but I was still left with more money than any normal human being can spend in a lifetime of trying. The day we closed the deal, I came out of the lawyer’s office, tore off my coat and tie, threw ’em in a trash can and I vowed I’d spend the rest of my life doing exactly what I wanted.