The Escort Service

For some reason Naomi's autopilot system isn't working, and I don't have the time or energy to fix it or even reason out what might be wrong. Why that is on my mind I don't know.

Lou took over at the controls a while ago, hours... and I thought I would be able to get some shut eye. That isn't happening. My eyes are closed, but that is the extent of my relaxation. I take what I can get, however, and just sit there... head back... seeing nothing. Lou is fiddling around with something, I can hear him, and then the one cassette we have comes to life and we are listening to Los Lonely Boys once again. I don't mind. You can barely hear it over the WASPS but it is comforting just the same.

There has been no discussion about what we are flying into on this trip. If Jerry is heading up this close to the border, I can only hope that he has taken every precaution. You see, that's the thing... it doesn't matter about the guy you know. It is the guy you don't know, the crazy fucker that comes along with the buyer who is more than willing to gut you to see what you had for lunch, that is the guy I worry about. The more I think about it this Taylor character is probably the heavy influence on the decision to make the trip. I already don't like the guy and I haven't even met him.

Lou seems to have a bit of a premonition. He took most of the grenades in the box and used the cord we had to make a sort of aerial cluster bomb. There must be fifty or sixty feet of straight cord with a loop tied on the end. This he has tied through some structure near the aft hatch. At the other end he has twenty or so individual lanyards that go out another ten or so feet... kind of staggered lengths so they aren't all hanging together. These are individually tied around the pins for each grenade. So if and when the time comes to use them he can throw the whole bundle out of the cargo door. Then, if all goes well... which means that the pins pull out of the grenades and they don't blow before we are out of harms way, we might see an advantage from his inventive streak. I see plenty to go wrong; early detonation... tail blows off and we die, pins don't come out... and the wind stream beats the little bastards on the tail section until it falls off or blows off, OR they drop okay and Lou forgets to cut the cords loose and they foul up the flight controls and we crash and die. All in all it sounds like a plan.

We fly for quite some time before Lou gives me a shove.
"Grab that apple juice out of the box, Jake, I'm fading fast." He takes a hand and rubs his eyes.

I grab the plastic jug... only about a pint left. I open it and take a hit before passing it on. Lou up-ends it and just before the last couple of swallows he passes it back and I finish it. Most of what-ever is in the bottom of that jug provides a nasty finish.

"Oh, Christ... that is some nasty shit."
Lou sits straight up in his seat, "But it works."
"Jake, take over for me. I want to check my rifle."

I take the controls and Lou goes back and unwraps his rifle. I can hear him working the action.
"Should have grabbed some gun oil." He mutters. The actions on the pistols go next and after he is satisfied, locked, and loaded he returns to the right seat.
"We are as ready as we'll ever be."

The air traffic is still clear, which is strange to me. With Felipe Calderon's war on the drug cartels up here I would have thought we would have been under the watchful eyes of the Federales as we get closer to the States. Lou must be on the same train of thought.

"Jake... we should take a turn and see if anyone is on our six."

I do a Crazy Ivan... a snap roll and pull around. Lou reaches up to the window frame for support. "Jesus, Nancy."
We come around fast and in our turn we see something just before we get back on course.
"I see... two of them."

We both see them, a couple of camo chase planes below us and spread apart so they can corral us like lions on a zebra in the Serengeti.

"That cat is out of the bag." Lou starts looking back. "They moved on us, mine is coming up."

I look over my shoulder. My chase plane is just below my wingtip and off about a hundred yards. With just a glimpse I can see the gun pods hanging off the wings.
"Oh, that's just great."

"You see those gun pods?" Lou cranes in his seat as he talks. "Looks like they have a couple of fifty cals." He turns a looks at me, and there is it... that steel look of determination. "I can kill the pilot on my side."

"Yeah, and then his buddy over here will dust us off." I start to descend. Ahead of us is the city of Anahuac. Once again, on the chart it showed there was no discernable airfield. But I have a feeling that these guys know where they can land.

"Hey, look at this."

The plane on Lou's side has moved up and the pilot is looking at us. Single seater, some foreign job. "I don't see any markings."

I look to my side and see that the other plane hasn't moved.
"I don't like the looks of this, Lou. If these were Federales they would be marked, wouldn't they?"

"Should be." Lou looks ahead of us. Something is brewing in that head of his.
"Jake, I don't think they mean to let us go on our way. And if they don't shoot us down right now, then someone will be pulling our fingers off in some dirt hut down there. I bet these are cartel planes... probably have their own fucking army."

"So what? What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking it's time to dance. Start climbing real slow, and then give it a little left rudder and see if they let us turn."

"And...?"

"We get away from wherever they wanted us to go, we get this guy on my side right next to us and I cap him."

"And this guy on my side makes confetti out of us."
"Can you do a barrel roll?"
"This isn't some Six Flags fun park."

I can feel him looking at me.

"Oh, come on man."
"You barrel roll, keep him right under us, or along side us if I can't get him with the first shot... I will sure as hell hit him with the second."

Don't you think you're jumping the gun? No pun intended."
I start to climb just a bit. That part makes sense. We might as well see...
"He's back."

The chase plane on Lou' side is right next to us. He motions to the ground with a gloved finger. His buddy on my wing is still behind and now has dropped just slightly. All he has to do is trigger that gun and pull up slightly and he will rake us.

"What are we doing, Jake?"
"I don't know... stall him for a second. Hell, give a thumbs up and make him think we are going his way."

Lou smiles and gives him a thumbs up for a moment and then drops back into the passenger compartment.

Oh shit... I can't believe we are going to do this.

I hear the bolt jack in the sniper rifle.
"Give her some gas, Jake."
I throttle up and hear the rush of air when he throws open the back hatch. Then the sharp report of the rifle, the push of concussive air.
"NOW JAKE".

It occurs to me that I have never done a barrel roll in my life. But in the fractions of a second after he shouts I pull back slightly, give her some left rudder, and do a hard over to the left and we are moving. It all seems like slow motion. I can see the chase plane that Lou fired on as we invert, falling off it's course... the pilot fatally wounded. Below me and now coming over to the Naomi's right side is his surprised companion.

Whether he knew what happened to his partner, or what was going to happen to him, is a mystery. I can only assume his first thought was to his buddy as he seemingly peeled away from the escort. Maybe he was on the radio... I don't know. What I do know is that Lou is a fucking ace with that rifle.

As we are inverted, I hear a second, then a third shot that follows moments later as I level off. The second plane falls back and then there is a tremendous shudder.

"SHIT... shit shit shit."
"What happened, Lou?" Naomi is shaking all over the place, and I am seeing some fading oil pressure on number one engine. "Did you get him?"

"I got the fucker. But he must have had his finger on the pickle switch 'cause he just peeled off about twenty rounds in our direction."

I turn and can see light through a dozen holes. One of them seems to be in Lou's arm.

"You're hit, LOU."
"Awe settle down, Nancy, I'll live."

I look back to the instruments and then out to the left wing.
"ON FIRE... WE'RE ON FIRE."

Lou hussles up to the cockpit. His arm is crimson.
"You better do something about that bleeding."

Somewhere behind and below us are two massive explosions as the chase planes touch down. Don't seem 'em, but we feel it when they hit.

"You better cut fuel to that engine and pull the bottle."
"Yeah... got it."
I go through the check list in my head and secure that engine. Fuel, fire bottle, feather the prop.

All of this happens in a matter of minutes from the time he fires the first shot at the first plane. Now we are flying with one engine, and now... I gently try the rudder and elevator, I realize we have very little response from either one of them.

"Well son of a bitch. That was a last great act of defiance on his part. Took out an engine and our ability to manuever."

"Hey, your still flying, aren't you?"
"Yeah, but once we land, we are down for good."

Our eyes pan the landscape below for a clear landing spot. We have left the city of Anahuac to our east. Five or so miles from that scrub town is a scratch airstrip.
"What is that... is that Abigail?" Lou grabs the field glasses. "Oh hell."

"What?"
"It's Abby, and small contigent of armed men."
I tip her as best as I can and try to circle around so we can see if Jerry is among the men.
"No sign of Jerry... " He sweeps along the air strip... "WATCH IT".
There are five sharp pops and we have new holes in Naomi.
"Motherfuckers."

"We can't stay up here all day, Lou."
"Oh I am NOT standing for this shit." He bails out of the right seat and into the cabin.
"Jake, you head back down the other way like we are going to land... draw them away from Abby."

"They'll shoot the hell out of us." I try to pull her around, but what is left of our rudder makes the move sluggish and slow. Another few pops and an spray of sparks as the wiring gets hit and arcs to the framework. Our instruments go flat.
"What ever you have planned you better make it fast. These guys are coming after us."
"PERFECT." Lou calls from the back.

I am giving it all I've got to hold her level. I can see the wingtip on my side is torn apart by a lucky shot. I look back over my shoulder and Lou is going from side to side like a rabid pit bull as he follows their progress.

"Okay, Jake, Give it all she's got and pull her up... give us a thousand feet."
"We have very little elevator and only one... "
"JUST DO IT!"

I push the throttle to the stop and pull with all my might on the control wheel. She shudders hard and is slow to respond, but her nose reaches for the sky. As the engine wails and we slow, I hear the rush of wind as he kicks the box of grenades out of the door.

"It's working... YEAH." He cuts the holding cord and slams the door shut."
"GO GO GO."

I put her on her wing and try to turn out of harms way. We have one engine down and blowing black smoke, one wing tip gone, no instruments, and a tail that probably looks like an old mop head. If we don't get killed by the blast the landing will probably do it. If we make that, God knows what we will face on the ground.