Page 136
"Four Three Three, roger."
Darmstadter looked at Dolan as he reached for the throttle quadrant. Now there was a sort of dazed look on his face. And he had not reached for the plastic sealed landing checkoff list hanging from the instrument panel.
Darmstadter realized that he was going to have to land the airplane himself, without help. But he was more concerned about Dolan's condition than he was about getting the flaps and gear down without help.
He turned to the right, then the left.
"Cairo, Four Three Three on final."
"Roger, Four Three Three. You are number one to land. Look out for the C-47 on the threshold."
Darmstadter put on twenty degrees of flaps, then lowered the gear. He came in low and slow and put it on the ground within a hundred yards of the threshold.
"Four Three Three on the ground."
"Four Three Three, take Taxiway Five, a Follow Me will meet you."
"Roger," Darmstadter said.
Taxiway Five was the last turnoff. As he taxied down the runway to it, Darmstadter saw a jeep racing down a taxiway parallel to the runway. The jeep was painted in a black-and-white checkerboard pattern, with a huge checkerboard flag above it flapping in the wind.
When he turned the B-25 off the runway, the jeep was there waiting for him. It led him to a remote corner of the field. There was a large hangar there whose doors were being opened as they arrived.
The Follow Me jeep stopped, and a ground handler hopped out and signaled for Darmstadter to move to the hangar doors. When the nose of the B-25 was ten feet from them, he gave the throat-cutting sign to stop engines.
Immediately, a dozen GIs came out of the hangar and manhandled the B-25 inside the hangar. Darmstadter sensed, from the decreasing light inside the hangar, that the doors were being closed.
He looked at Dolan.
"You all right, Commander?" he asked.
"The word you have to keep in mind, Darmstadter," Dolan said, "is 'indigestion."
Am I going to have trouble with you about that?"
"No, Sir," Darmstadter said after a moment.
"Thank you," Dolan said, simply and sincerely..
"What happens now?" Darmstadter asked.
"I don't know," Dolan said.
"Canidy gave me that "Flight Four Zero Five' , message just before we took off. I expect somebody will show up shortly. In i the meantime, you might have them start to refuel it." i When Darmstadter dropped from the belly of the B-25, he saw that there were two military policemen, armed with Thompson submachine guns, guarding the airplane. And there was a captain, wearing an AOD (Aerodrome Officer of the Day) brassard.
Darmstadter walked over to him and saluted.
"I'd like to get this fueled," he said.
"Someone will be along for you shortly, Lieutenant," the AOD said.
"In the meantime, nothing comes into, or goes out of, this hangar."
"We have a female passenger aboard," Darmstadter said.
"She has to use the can."
"I don't know if there's one available," the AOD said.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136 (Reading here)
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142