Calmly, Captain Tolson, commander of Revenge, turned to Kas-Ra-Ar. «Clear for action!» he said, the grin still on his face. «Boy, I get such a kick out of saying that!»
«That’s it? Six?» Mallory demanded. Ed nodded without a word. «Shit!» shouted Ben in frustration. «Now I know what the captain meant when he asked me what I’d do!» Ed had no idea what he was talking about, but given the context of the situation, he could make a pretty good guess. «All right,» Mallory said at last. «Strap in. As soon as we’re airborne, try to raise Walker again. You have ten minutes. Then I want you on the nose gun. Tell those ’Cats in the waist to get ready too.» He fiddled with the throttles as he turned the plane into the wind. «Maybe if we strafe ’em a few times we’ll scare ’em off,» he added doubtfully.
The engines roared and the hull pounded and thundered beneath their feet as the plane tried to increase speed, but instead it just seemed to wallow through the choppy swells.
«C’mon! C’mon!» Mallory shouted, and slammed the throttles to their stops.
«What’s the matter?» Palmer shouted from behind him. Tikker sat, perfectly still, both eyes clenched shut.
«Oh, ah, nothing, Ed. It’s just a little rougher than I’m used to!» His voice was vibrating sympathetically with the airplane.
«I’m gonna be sick!» Palmer moaned when the plane pitched nose-first into a larger wave that seemed to arrest all forward motion. «Air-sick and seasick all at once!»
Surprisned by the staccato bursts of one.30- and two.50-caliber machine guns. The firing in the waist was accompanied by high-pitched squeals of delight. The airframe vibrated more than usual with the recoil of the guns and Ben continued his tight-banking turn to keep his indicated targets in range. Geysers of water marched from ship to ship and then disappeared when the bullets struck wood. Tightly packed Grik warriors were slaughtered in droves.
«Let ’em have it!» Ben screamed. Revenge vanished behind another cloud of smoke and this time the foremast of one of the closest ships tottered into the sea. Dragged around by the trailing debris, the ship veered sharply to port and speared into another Grik ship sailing directly alongside. Others slammed into the entangled wrecks from behind and it looked to Ben like a giant chain-reaction pileup on the highway.
«Hell, yes! Outstanding!» he shouted as still more ships added to the catastrophe.
«What are those ones doing?» Tikker asked, pointing. Ben looked. Several ships had broken from the pack and were trying to cut Revenge off. If they crossed her bow, the ship’s guns wouldn’t bear and they’d be free to grapple. Once that happened, it would be all over but the dying.
«New targets!» yelled Ben. «Engage the ships out front! One of them looks different. bigger! And the hull’s white and gold — not red. I bet it’s special somehow. Give it an extra dose!» The nose gun and the port.50 stitched the sea around the unusual ship. Splinters and debris erupted and bodies fell, while others tried to surge away from the impacts. A few even fell into the sea.
«I’m empty!» came a frustrated, keening shriek from aft. So much for controlled bursts. Ben stomped on the right rudder pedal and banked the opposite direction, allowing the starboard gunner a chance.
«Make ’em count!» he snarled. The plane rattled as the other gun resumed fire. Down below, Revenge was wreathed in smoke. Bright jets of flame stabbed out at irregular intervals. Several enemy ships were almost upon her and they were being systematically dismantled. Masts crowded with struggling forms fell into the sea and at least one of the enemy was dead in the water, its shattered bow dipping low. So far, none of the enemy had employed their «Grik Fire,» however. They seemed intent on coming to grips with Revenge, whatever the cost.
«They want her in one piece,» Ben surmised aloud. There was nothing he could do about it. Ed’s gun had fallen silent in the nose. The PBY wasn’t carrying much ammunition — it was never imagined that it would need more than would be necessary to keep a threat at bay while it took off. Much like what had happened right after they discovered it. Now, even as the starboard waist gun continued to stutter, grappling hooks arced through the air, trailing their lines behind them like hundreds of spiders casting their webs.
«Damn it!» Ben exclaimed. His voice cracked. «They want her guns!»
Ed reappeared at his shoulder. «Rick won’t let them take her,» he said with sad, quiet certainty. Even as they circled, watching with sick fascination, more and more enemy vessels crowded forward like ants upon a stricken comrade. Revenge had disappeared entirely within the forest of masts and the only way they could tell her position was by the proximity of the strange white ship and the hazy column of smoke that still rose from the center of the mass. The final waist gun was silent now, but still Ben orbited above. On the d billowing cloud of smoke. Masts toppled outward from the blast like trees on the slope of a volcano and fiery debris rocketed into the sky. The plane was buffeted by the shock wave of the explosion and Ben fought the wheel to regain control. He quickly banked again to see the results through his suddenly unfocused eyes. Eight or ten ships had been in close contact with Revenge when she blew herself up. Two were just gone, and three more were smoldering wrecks. Vigorous fires had taken hold on several more and the smoke added to the vast pall now drifting down wind. Of Revenge and the white ship that had been beside her, there was no sign.
«That’s the style,» muttered Ben. His voice was almost a sob. He gently eased back on the controls and the Catalina began to gain altitude.
«Are we leaving now?» Ed asked.
«I guess,» Ben replied. «I just couldn’t before. Not while there was anybody down there who could see us.» Ed nodded understanding. «Besides, the captain. everyone will want to know how it ended.» He sighed. «One more thing, too. I want to get a solid count of how many ships they have. We’re still the ‘eyes’ of the fleet.»
At three thousand feet, Ben circled again while the others counted the enemy.
«Jesus, there’s a lot of them. I’ve lost count twice,» Ed said.
«It doesn’t have to be perfect. What do you have, Tikker?»
«Three hundred ten, but that’s not all I see, that’s all I can count. There’s more on the horizon.» Tikker squinted again. «There’s that Vol-caanno still.» He shook his head. «It looks closer now.»
For the first time, Ben really looked to the north where Tikker had spotted the smoke. Sure enough, a solid black column was slanting away to the east. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. «What the.?» He leveled out and pointed the Catalina north, toward the distant smudge.
«What is it?» asked Ed.
«I dunno. It looks like. but that’s impossible.» Frozen mercury poured down his back.
«It is!» Ed exclaimed excitedly. He was looking through the binoculars now. «It’s a ship! A modern ship! Burning coal, by the look of her. That’s why all the black smoke.» He hesitated and his face assumed a troubled expression. «But what the hell is she doing running around with a bunch of lizards? Look, they’re all around her!»
«Maybe they captured her? She had to have gotten here the same way we did. Hell, they nearly got us, remember?»
Ed was still staring intently through the glasses. «Jeez, that’s not just any ship, it’s a warship! She looks bigger than the goddamn Arizona!»
The icy mercury running down Ben’s back was suddenly joined in his stomach by molten lead. «Give me those!» he said, snatching the glasses away. «Tikker, take the controls!»
The Lemurian stared, wide-eyed, at the wheel in front of him and then grasped it in both of his clawed hands. The tone in Ben’s voice told him that any fooling around wouldn’t be acceptable. He clenched his teeth and held the wheel as tight and steady as he could. Ben adjusted the objective until the image became crystal clear. His subconscious mind screamed in protest and he almost dropped the binoculars. Even at twelve or fifteen miles the silhouette was un maintained contact for quite a while as it flew ever farther north. Then, all of a sudden, there was nothing. Just some weird static. It wasn’t coming from his end, he was sure, and he doubted that Ed had done anything on his end to cause it. Ed could be a screwball, but he was a pretty good hand with a radio and besides, with the skipper on the warpath, he knew better than to goof around.