“Pull out!” Jinn shouted. “Pull out!”
The pilot rolled the wings level and pulled back on the yoke. The jet skimmed the water, touched it briefly, skipping like a stone, and then climbed skyward once again.
“THEY PULLED OUT,” Leilani said, looking back through the side window. “Somehow, they pulled out.”
Kurt thought of heading around for another run, but he was already lined up on the second plane. Plan A had failed, and with the second aircraft climbing above a thousand feet and accelerating it would have no effect this time. Still, he had to do something.
Kurt used the extra speed he’d carried to outclimb his quarry, gaining altitude faster than the other jet. Once he was above it, he angled toward the other plane and matched its course, closing in from the seven o’clock high position.
For a second he had no clue what he’d do next. But an idea came to him that felt so brilliant, he would have patted himself on the back if he could have.
He looked around the cockpit. Amid the myriad gauges and switches and screens he spotted what he was looking for.
“Grab that handle,” he said, pointing.
Leilani put her hand on a thick metal bar lined with yellow-and-black warning chevrons.
“Get ready to pull it!”
As he closed in on his quarry, the plane began to shake. The slipstream coming off the other jet made him feel like a water-skier crossing a powerboat’s wake. He pulled back and climbed above the turbulence and, after ten seconds, he pushed the nose forward again, knifing toward the other jet as if on a strafing run.
He raced over the top of the jet, higher than he’d been before.
“Now!”
Leilani slammed the yellow-and-black down.
A great whooshing sound swept through the plane, and Kurt felt the nose pitch up and the plane all but leap skyward.
Out behind the aircraft a cloud of gray vapor had appeared, whipping backward, slamming into the second jet. Despite the vaporlike appearance, the central column of the dumped mixture was still together. Twelve thousand pounds of water and microbots hit the cockpit, shattering the windshield and crushing the pilots like a tidal wave.
The rest of the load swept over the aircraft, catching the starboard wing and engine. The turbofan exploded from the impact, compressor blades and other pieces flying outward through the cowling.
The weight of the water hammered the right wing more than the left, forcing it down and back, and the aircraft rolled over and dove seaward. It hit seconds later, cartwheeling across the ocean’s surface. The impact tore the jet apart, sending people, cargo and metal shards in all directions.
Kurt realized he’d just dumped a bunch of Jinn’s bots into the sea, but it was the only weapon he had at his disposal. He circled to the right, spotted the wreckage and immediately began looking for the surviving jet lest he and Leilani suffer a similar fate.
Suddenly, a voice came over the radio. Kurt recognized it as Gamay Trout’s.
GAMAY TROUT SAT at the radioman’s console in Aqua-Terra’s communications room. The cold end of a pistol was pressed against the back of her head.
“Speak to him!” Zarrina’s harsh voice demanded. “Tell him to surrender or I’ll kill you all. Your husband dies first.”
Paul had been forced to lie down on the floor. Matson stood with a foot on the small of Paul’s back. He pointed a Luger-style pistol toward the nape of his neck. Otero stood close by with another gun.
“Speak!”
Gamay grabbed the microphone they’d placed in front of her. She held the transmit switch. “Kurt, this is Gamay. Do you read me?”
It took a few seconds, but Kurt’s voice came through in her headphones.
“Gamay, you’re under attack. Take cover. Have Marchetti activate the robots.”
“Tell him to surrender!” Zarrina ordered.
Gamay glanced out the window. She’d seen one of the jets go down, the other two were climbing and turning, one appearing to be stalking the other, but she had no idea which was which.
Zarrina shoved Gamay’s head forward with the muzzle of the gun. “I won’t ask again.”
Gamay grabbed the microphone but still hesitated.
“Kill him!” Zarrina said to Otero.
“Wait!” Gamay shouted. She pressed and held the transmit switch.
“Kurt, this is Gamay,” she said. “They have us already. They have us in the brig. They’re going to kill us if you don’t land the plane and surrender.”
Silence followed. Gamay stared out the window. One of the planes had stopped maneuvering. She guessed that was Kurt. The other jet was closing in.
She watched for a second and then pressed the switch again. “Look out!” she shouted. “They’re on your—”
She never finished the sentence because Zarrina knocked her from the chair. She tumbled into the wall, got up ready to throw a punch and took a kick to the stomach that knocked the wind out of her and dropped her to the ground.
Outside, she saw the two planes almost collide. They crossed paths, separated and then crossed paths again. A trail of dark smoke began to stream from one of them.
KURT REACTED TO GAMAY’S warning as fast as he could. He banked left and almost slammed into Jinn’s plane. He shoved the yoke to the right, rolled the plane over and heard the sound of shells tearing into the fuselage.
Jinn’s craft was matching his turn. Men were firing .50 caliber machine guns through an open cargo door.
Kurt cut back toward them. The two planes crossed paths and almost collided a third time. As Kurt peeled off and began to make a run for it, a bank of warning lights came on in the cockpit. He pointed the nose down to pick up speed, kept the throttles to the wall and retracted the flaps he’d never pulled in.
The plane accelerated, and Kurt turned to the southwest. Various warning lights continued to blink, but nothing seemed disastrous.
He juked to the left and then back to the right, remembering the rule he’d heard an old fighter pilot tell him once: He who flies straight, dies.
After several sets of these maneuvers, he still hadn’t seen Jinn’s plane.
He kept the jet on the deck and at full speed. He made a slight turn to the west. So far, so good. But still no sign of Jinn.
“Do you see him?”
Leilani was swinging her head around, doing everything she could to spot the other craft. Kurt turned to the right, hoping to give her a wider view.
“No,” she said. “Wait … yes. He’s behind us,” she said excitedly. “He seems to be falling back. He’s heading lower.”
That didn’t sound right. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, we’re leaving him behind. I think he’s landing.”
Kurt couldn’t believe their luck. He wondered why Jinn would be letting him go.
Zarrina’s voice came over the radio. “Kurt Austin, you will land and surrender or I will kill your friends.”
The line stayed open, and the sound of someone grunting in pain and then screaming reached his ears.
“You harm them and you’re a dead woman, Zarrina,” he said, returning a threat with a threat.
Kurt had no choice but to run. Surrendering wouldn’t stop them from murdering his friends. It would just mean there were no witnesses around to report it. But if he could escape, that turned the tables. It meant Zarrina and Jinn had to worry about being discovered and facing retribution. Sometimes those thoughts protected prisoners who were otherwise considered expendable.
“You harm them and there won’t be anyplace in this world where I won’t hunt you down.”