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One selection was labeled AG, which had to mean Air-to-Ground. Another read AA, which meant Air-to-Air. And a third reading COL.

That h

as to mean the pilot of the Storch has the ability to communicate with the Collins.

He pointed them out and explained them to Grüner and then got out of the Storch and went to the Lodestar. With some difficulty, he got the Admiral Byrd Antarctic cold-weather gear out of its bag, and then himself into the bulky gear.

The Thompson was also in the bag, and after a moment’s thought he picked it up before he left the airplane. There he slung it over his shoulder, whereupon the canvas strap immediately slipped off. He slung it again and it slipped off again.

It needs a button or something on the shoulder to keep the strap on.

Von Dattenberg went into the airplane and put on a set of the gear.

There’s no way both of us—maybe either of us—can get into the Cub wearing this stuff.

He said so when von Dattenberg came out of the Lodestar.

“I’ll take him in the Storch,” Grüner said, “and give him a quick course in aerial observation while you are determining whether or not your wings are going to stay on.”

Cronley went to the Cub, put the Thompson in the backseat, and then, with less difficulty than he expected, got in. A man wearing SAA coveralls came to him and said that they had been running the engine for a couple of minutes every hour.

“To keep the oil from turning to rock again,” he explained. “We had a hell of a hard time starting it the first time. But it should start fine now.”

The engine caught on the fourth spin of the propeller, but took a long time to warm up. Cronley wondered if Grüner was having the same kind of trouble.

He found a small commo panel, with the same selector switch he had found in the Storch. He found the microphone and earphones and learned that he could wear the earphones or the hood that came with the Admiral Byrd gear—but not both at the same time.

He moved the switch to AA and pressed the TRANSMIT button.

“Can you hear me, Willi?”

There was no response.

When he looked at the Storch he saw why. Willi did not have the earphones on.

Finally, Grüner looked at him, saw him pointing to his ears, and put the earphones on.

“This is working?” his voice came clearly over Jimmy’s earphones.

“Five by five.”

“What?”

“Five by five” apparently is not what the Luftwaffe says when one pilot wants to tell another that he’s receiving his radio transmission “loud and clear.”

“Loud and clear, Willi.”

“You, also. Why don’t you go first?” Grüner asked, but Cronley understood it as an order. “Head due east at two hundred fifty meters. I’ll fly off your left wing at three hundred. Maybe we can find some kind of a landmark on the shore to help us find our way back here.”

“Understand due east at two hundred fifty meters,” Cronley responded. “The Mighty Cub is rolling.”

He advanced the throttle.

If there was something special I should know about taking off, he would have said something.

Or would he have?

I don’t know what the fuck I am doing here.