“You’re all right?”
“Of course I’m all right. I came around the corner and the damn bug squirted me with something.”
“But it’s red, and it’s…” Wiz extended a finger to touch Malkin’s gory torso. He drew it back, rubbed the red substance between his thumb and forefinger and sniffed it. “Cocktail sauce,” he concluded.
Wordlessly, June produced a hand mirror and held it up before Malkin.
“Oh Fortuna!” the thief exclaimed at what she saw in the mirror. “And you thought I…” She broke up laughing and Wiz, Danny and June all joined in.
“I’m going to kill that lobster!” Malkin growled. Try to serve me up with cocktail sauce, will he?”
“I never did like lobster,” Wiz said. “Always gave me gas.”
June handed Malkin a cloth and she began wiping the sauce off her face. “I think I’m developing a taste for lobster.” She looked down at the red-smeared cloth. “If I can watch him boil,” she added savagely.
Danny was still laughing. “Hey, what’s the matter? I heard you like being smeared with stuff.”
“That was honey,” Malkin said with some dignity. “And it was completely different. Besides, it was Jerrys idea.”
“You what?” General Paul Manley roared into the receiver.
The lawyer on the other end was unperturbed by Manley’s rank or his command bellow.
“That aircraft is carrying a member of an endangered species,” he repeated. “We have a federal court order protecting it. Under the terms of that order you cannot harm it.”
“What?”
“Specifically,” the lawyer went on, “you can’t shoot it down.”
That’s the biggest goddamn load of bullshit I’ve ever heard in my lifer General Manley roared. He went on in that vein for several minutes. Then he slammed down the phone.
“Order the CAP not to fire,” he said to the controllers. “We’ve got orders from Washington not to down that plane.” The controller turned back to her radio to relay the message and General Manley grinned. Then he caught the lieutenant looking at him and scowled again.
“Get the ready squad loaded and in the air,” he growled. “If that turkey lands I want him surrounded and arrested.”
The Colt roared over the mountains so close Gilligan could have reached out and touched the rocks. Ahead lay a flat tan plain dotted with occasional greasewood bushes. Almost lost in the distance and the dark backdrop of mountains was a cluster of low buildings including several hangars and a control tower. As soon as they were over the ridge line Charlie pushed the wheel forward and sent the plane into a sickening swoop, sticking so close to the mountainside that, for an instant, Mick thought he was going to set down on the slope. Gilligan decided to look up instead but the view wasn’t any less menacing. The F-16s came flashing over the mountain at a much more reasonable altitude, then banked sharply to come around toward them.
General Manley studied the approaching speck through his binoculars. That was a bit of an affectation since he could have gotten a much better view from the optical sensor displays on the console. Heedless of the F-16s buzzing about, the lumbering biplane droned on like a bumblebee on a summer’s day.
“Alcatraz,” General Manley growled.
“Sir?” the lieutenant asked.
“When I get that pilot I’m gonna send him to Alcatraz for the rest of his miserable life.”
“Sir, they closed Alcatraz prison years ago.”
“We’ll reopen it,” the general growled, clamping the field glasses to his eyes. “When I get done with him, that bastard’s never going to see daylight.”
“Okay folks, almost there.” Charlie chopped the throttle and the big biplane settled toward the desert floor at an unnerving rate. Gilligan resisted an urge to close his eyes.
The lake bed was flat and the Colt was made for rough-field landings. Charlie took full advantage of the plane’s ruggedness and brought them in steeply and hard Gilligan’s teeth rattled and Jerry lost his grip and landed in a heap against Moira.
Charlie was unfazed “I’m going to taxi right up against the thing,” he yelled over the engine noise. “As soon as we get there everyone get the hell out.” With that he stood on the rudder pedal and gunned the engine to send them bouncing over the desert at a speed that threatened to ground-loop them at any instant. Off in the distance Gilligan could see columns of dust rising where vehicles left the pavement and raced toward them. He looked sideways at Charlie, but the old man seemed oblivious to the approaching danger.