Part 5 (1/2)

”A friend of mine out at Muroc says wait till they get the Flying Wing in operation. They're already working on an all-jet version of it. A bomber that can go thirteen thousand miles at five hundred per, carries a crew of thirteen, bunk beds for seven, can stay up for a day and a half!” said another.

”Anybody know anything about this alert?” asked a very young, nervous guy with second-looie bars. ”The Russians up to something?”

”I heard we were going to Greece,” said someone. ”Ouzo for me, gallons of it.”

”More like Czech potato-peel vodka. We'll be lucky if we see Christmas.”

Jetboy realized he missed ready-room banter more than he had thought.

The intercom hissed on and a klaxon began to wail. Jetboy looked at his watch. It was 2:25 P.M. P.M.

He realized he missed something more than Air Corps badinage. That was flying. Now it all came back to him. When he had flown down to Was.h.i.+ngton the night before it had been just a routine hop.

Now was different. It was like wartime again. He had a vector. He had a target. He had a mission.

He also had on an experimental Navy T2 pressure suit. It was a girdle manufacturer's dream, all rubber and laces, pressure bottles, and a real s.p.a.ce helmet, like out of Planet Comics Planet Comics, over his head. They had fitted him for it the night before, when they saw his high-alt.i.tude wings and drop tanks on the plane.

”We'd better tailor this down for you,” the flight sergeant had said.

”I've got a pressurized cabin,” said Jetboy.

”Well, in case they need you, and in case something goes wrong, then.”

The suit was still too tight, and it wasn't pressurized yet. The arms were built for a gorilla, and the chest for a chimpanzee. ”You'll appreciate the extra room if that thing ever inflates in an emergency,” said the sergeant.

”You're the boss,” said Jetboy.

They'd even painted the torso white and the legs red to match his outfit. His blue helmet and goggles showed through the clear plastic bubble.

As he climbed with the rest of the squadron, he was glad now that he had the thing. His mission was to accompany the flight of P80s in, and to engage only if needed. He had never exactly been a team player.

The sky ahead was blue as the background curtain in Bronzino's Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, with a two-fifths cloud to the north. The sun stood over his left shoulder. The squadron angled up. He wigwagged the wings. They spread out in a staggered box and cleared their guns.

Chunder chunder chunder chunder went his 20mm cannons. went his 20mm cannons.

Tracers arced out ahead from the six .50 cals on each P80. They left the prop planes far behind and pointed their noses toward Manhattan.

They looked like a bunch of angry bees circling under a hawk.

The sky was filled with jets and prop fighters climbing like the wall clouds of a hurricane.

Above was a lumpy object that hung and moved slowly on toward the city. Where the eye of the hurricane would be was a torrent of flak, thicker than Jetboy had ever seen over Europe or j.a.pan.

It was bursting far too low, only at the level of the highest fighters.

Fighter Control called them. ”Clark Gable Command to all squadrons. Target at five five zero . . . repeat, five five zero angels. Moving ENE at two five knots. Flak unable to reach.”

”Call it off,” said the squadron leader. ”We'll try to fly high enough for deflection shooting. Squadron Hodiak, follow me.”

Jetboy looked up into the high blue above. The object continued its slow track.

”What's it got?” he asked Clark Gable Command.

”Command to Jetboy. Some type of bomb is what we've been told. It has to be a lighter-than-air craft of at least five hundred thousand cubic feet to reach that alt.i.tude. Over.”

”I'm beginning a climb. If the other planes can't reach it, call them off, too.”

There was silence on the radio, then, ”Roger.”

As the P80s glinted like silver crucifixes above him, he eased the nose up.

”Come on, baby,” he said. ”Let's do some flying.”

The Shooting Stars began to fall away, sideslipping in the thin air. Jetboy could hear only the sound of his own pressure-breathing in his ears, and the high thin whine of his engines.

”Come on, girl,” he said. ”You can make it!”

The thing above him had resolved itself into a b.a.s.t.a.r.d aircraft made of half a dozen blimps, with a gondola below it. The gondola looked as if it had once been a PT boat sh.e.l.l. That was all he could see. Beyond it, the air was purple and cold. Next stop, outer s.p.a.ce.

The last of the P80s slid sideways on the blue stairs of the sky. A few had made desultory firing runs, some snap-rolling as fighters used to do underneath bombers in the war. They fired as they nosed up. All their tracers fell away under the balloons.

One of the P80s fought for control, dropping two miles before leveling out.

Jetboy's plane protested, whining. It was hard to control. He eased the nose up again, had to fight it.

”Get everybody out of the way,” he said to Clark Gable Command.

”Here's where we give you some fighting room,” he said to his plane. He blew the drop tanks. They fell away like bombs behind him. He pushed his cannon b.u.t.ton. Chunder chunder chunder chunder Chunder chunder chunder chunder they went. Then again and again. they went. Then again and again.

His tracers arced toward the target, then they too fell away. He fired four more bursts until his cannon ran dry. Then he cleaned out the twin fifties in the tail, but it didn't take long for all one hundred rounds to be spent.

He nosed over and went into a shallow dive, like a salmon sounding to throw a hook, gaining speed. A minute into the run he nosed up, putting the JB1 into a long circling climb.

”Feels better, huh?” he asked.

The engines bit into the air. The plane, relieved of the weight, lurched up and ahead.

Below him was Manhattan with its seven million people. They must be watching down there, knowing these might be the last things they ever saw. Maybe this is what living in the Atomic Age would be like, always be looking up and thinking, Is this it? Is this it?

Jetboy reached down with one of his boots and slammed a lever over. A 75mm cannon sh.e.l.l slid into the breech. He put his hand on the autoload bar, and pulled back a little more on the control wheel.

The red jet cut the air like a razor.