Blood Orchid

That was all right, she thought; he was calling the Blood Orchid office, reporting someone loitering on the airstrip. Then he finished the call, got aboard, closing the door behind him, and shortly, the airplane’s engines started and it taxied to the runway. The jet took off, headed north, and was soon out of sight.

Then Holly heard the sound of a small airplane and spotted Gi

“You take the left seat,” she said.

Holly put Daisy in the rear seat and climbed aboard and ran through the startup checklist with Gi

“Let’s do some touch-and-goes,” Gi

“Okay,” Holly replied, turning crosswind and climbing. She climbed to a thousand feet, turned downwind, and began ru

“I’ve got the airplane,” Gi

“I don’t know,” Gi

Then, as they turned crosswind, Holly felt something jar the airplane, and a hole appeared in the Plexiglas window next to her head. “Get out of here!” she shouted at Gi

53

Gi

“No,” Holly replied. “We can’t go there; it’s not safe. That’s what whoever was shooting at us will think we’ll do. Is there someplace else nearby?”

“There are half a dozen airports within a few minutes’ flight, but with all the vibration, I think the propeller must have been hit, and if that’s true, it could come off the airplane any time, and we’d be done for. Without the prop up front, the airplane’s balance would be so affected that we couldn’t fly; we’d be too tail-heavy.”

“Then let’s put it down on a road or something.”

Gi

Holly sat in her seat and stared forward, searching for the airfield. Only her big sunglasses made it possible for her to keep her eyes open, with so much wind in her face. She glanced at the airspeed indicator: Gi

“There!” Gi

Holly spotted the three runways, set in a triangle, and a large hangar. “I’ve got the field.”

“You want to land it?” Gi

“No! You do it.”

Gi

“What the hell are you doing?” Holly demanded.

“I think we were about to lose the prop,” Gi

Holly switched it off. “Do we have enough altitude to make it?” Holly shouted, her headset no longer of any use with the power off. The airplane seemed awfully low to her.

“We’re about to find out,” Gi

Holly yanked on her seat belt until it hurt, then turned and held onto Daisy’s collar, then she braced against the instrument panel, elbow slightly bent, so the impact wouldn’t break her arm. It was becoming clear that they weren’t going to make the runway.

Gi

The airplane was headed straight toward a drainage ditch about fifty yards short of the runway. Gi

The airplane stalled and fell the last ten feet to the ground, landing with a noisy slam, then bouncing a couple of times. They came to a stop on the very end of the runway.

“Well,” Gi

“A little late, though,” Holly replied. “I’m glad you were able to miss the ditch.”

Gi

They got out and walked around the airplane. Daisy seemed remarkably unconcerned. Apart from the shattered windshield and the punctured window, there was a line of bullet holes ru

Gi

“All that sounds expensive,” Holly said.

Gi

“Start?” Holly asked, alarmed. “You’re not going to try to fly it again, are you?”

“No, I’m going to try and taxi it over to that old hangar,” Gi

Holly got into the passenger seat. “Right. And anyway, somebody might be looking for us from the air.”

“The thought crossed my mind,” Gi

Shortly, they were in the shade of the big hangar, which had been built to hold many airplanes. Gi

Gi

“It takes a lot to concern Ham.”

“You know,” Gi

“You could be right,” Holly said, looking at the prop. “Looks like there’s about six inches missing, and that’s a pretty good-sized piece of metal.”

“Holly, who was shooting at us?”

Holly thought about that for a minute. “I’m not sure I know,” she said. “You think I could sleep on the sofa tonight?”