Soarin’ and Jubi had newly painted the outline of an iron cross with the full ones on Rainbow’s jet to represent her half-kill. Wind Rider’s Mirage had a full red star on it. Soarin’ seemed to care more than Rainbow. Mostly, she just avoided Wind Rider. She had other things to worry about.
There was still no luck on the topic of magic. Rainbow had even tried lion blood again, but the meager bit left on the claws under her bed had done nothing. Or maybe her attitude just wasn’t right. What might be right still eluded her.
Rainbow kept searching. Running always helped her think, even though she had less and less energy lately. What passed for food kept her and everyone else alive, but it wasn’t really the thriving she was used to. Still, Rainbow realized, she had to give herself every advantage. She ate what she could.
She wasn’t desperate enough to try eating bugs for extra protein. But more - and better! - food would be nice.
So when she stumbled on some flowering vines woven through the fence, she couldn’t help but stop and take a look. To her surprise, she realized they were baby watermelons. She realized this was where her failed escape attempt had taken place.
Looking around, Rainbow carefully unwound the vines from the fence, partially to keep them from being seen, partly to let the watermelons creep across the ground through the tall grass. She was skeptical the golf-ball sized fruit could reach maturity before being discovered, but there was nothing to do but try.
The thought drifted across her mind that the same applied to a lot of things. But where should she start?
There was another mission that afternoon. Another all-pilot sortie. After taking off and getting set on a heading, Rainbow hastily unfolded the crumpled paper from her pocket and held it up.
C R A Z Y H O R S E
Rainbow dialed in the frequency she still remembered from when the map was left. Silence. She tried, “Hello?”
“I take it you got the message.” It was the same voice from before.
“Yeah.” She wanted to add, “How do you people do that, anyway?” but didn’t think this was the time.
“For authentication, spell your name in alphanumeric, using the SARNEG we provided.”
“Uh…
“A one, b two…”
Rainbow did some quick mental math. R was number eighteen. So one-eight on the CRAZYHORSE alphanumeric was… “Romeo Sierra.”
She finished spelling out her name via number via SARNEG. She was getting antsy that she’d already spent too much time on the frequency and away from the UTA channel. Someone would notice.
The voice came back. “You like rock music?”
What did that have to do with anything? “Yes.”
“Listen to this.” The voice gave her a letter code, which Rainbow translated back to numbers using the SARNEG. She then dialed it in as a frequency. Music was playing.
Did you see any action/did you make any friends?
Would you like some affection/before I leave again?
Rainbow knew the song, but it had been a while.
I been walkin' behind you/since you been able to see
There's never been any reason/for you to think about me
That’s right, it was called Never Been Any Reason.
Did you have any bad dreams/did you break any glass?
Would you be my companion/is there even a chance?
Rainbow liked the song, but she couldn’t quite place the band. Some one-hit wonder.
Bring a good feelin' ain't had in such a long time
Save my life I'm goin' down for the last time
It came to her. The band was called Head East.
Wait…
She flipped back to the other station. “Really?”
“Did you get it?”
“Yeah,” said Rainbow. “I got it. I just don’t know if I’m going to be able to.”
“We’ll be here.”
Even despite the pilots handing over the previous set of codes to the UTA? Whoever this mysterious group was, they’d changed the SARNEG, so apparently they knew the information had been compromised, but the location was the same. Was the UTA not able to reach far enough to hit them there? Were they, whoever they were, powerful enough not to worry about it? Or was “head east” a general direction and they would find her along the way?
“Thank you,” said Rainbow. It was only polite. She flipped back to the UTA channel without waiting for a reply. A good thing, too, as Wind Rider was just spelling out the mission for them.
“We’re doing close air support to the northeast. The trees get thicker over there. There may even be some actual jungle.”
“How are we supposed to spot targets?” Kiel asked.
“Carefully.”
The ground controller, Giraffe, was not amused. “The bush is thick here. I’m almost tempted to have you clear it for us. We can’t even see the enemy.”
Looking down, Rainbow could definitely understand how likely that was. At least she felt safe from ground fire. Whoever was down there probably couldn’t even see the sky, much less get a missile lock.
Giraffe fumbled around and managed to get a flare launched out through the canopy. “Drag one kilometer south of our position. Drop there.”
Wind Rider went first. His bombs hit where Giraffe thought he wanted them, though it was hard to tell with the dense undergrowth.
“I swear this wasn’t here before,” Rainbow heard him mutter on the radio.
Giraffe was able to mark his position once more before running out of flares. The others dropped their bombs into the forest at rough intervals, clearing circular holes out of the vegetation, though much smaller than Rainbow would have guessed. Nature wasn’t having it.
With nothing more they were able to do, the flight headed back.
Circling for landing, Rainbow saw a truck rolling out the base gate. It tore off across the savannah, beelineing for something. She took her mind off it, putting the MiG down.
Within a few minutes of landing, however, the truck was back. It pulled up in front of the hangars as Rainbow was climbing down. Out of the back, soldiers pulled a man in a pocketed khaki vest. He was dirty and sweaty, as if he’d spent a lot time roughing it. He seemed to have, of all things, a striped pageboy hat. They forced him to his knees.
One of the soldiers smashed an expensive-looking camera on the tarmac. “We caught him snooping around.”
“We’re going to have to pick up those pieces or we’ll suck them into an engine,” Soarin’ warned.
Wind Rider walked over, Connor Clash with him. “What do we have here?”
“My name’s Big Shot,” the detainee said. “I work for a nature magazine.” He glanced at the smashed camera and quickly added, “You could have seen my shots of animals, but this moron broke my gear!”
The soldier in question kicked Big Shot in the back. Nobody stopped him. Big Shot sprawled forward, but picked himself up, going back to an upright position on his knees. “Look, I’ve got a satphone. Just let me give my office a call.”
“Nah,” said Wind Rider. He pulled a Glock pistol out of a pocket of his flight harness, racked the slide, and put a bullet in Big Shot’s head. Blood splashed across the pavement. Big Shot’s body fell forward and lay still, blood dribbling out of the wound.
Rainbow was surprised, but, well, not that surprised. More about the speed of the action than the end result.
Though, a creeping horror came over her about just how numb she was to it. Maybe if she’d known him. Maybe if they’d fought together.
His death was still tragic. He seemed innocent enough. Or maybe he was a spy trying to get the kidnapped pilots out, as the UTA seemed so quick to believe. Either way, Rainbow should have been on his side. She should at least feel sorry for him. Even more so than anyone around her. He was more worthy, more innocent of everything.
Wasn’t he? Why didn’t that make him more important in her mind than the other pilots, who she couldn’t fully trust with her life?
I am loyalty. She was true to her comrades, even if some of them would willingly stab her in the back. It wasn’t about how they treated her, it was about what she did for them.
Rainbow blinked away tears. She finally knew what she had to do.
Could Rainbow pull off her plan before Pantera completed her one hundred missions? That probably gave her less than two weeks.
Rainbow lay in bed in the dark. Her eyes were closed, but she was a long way from sleep. Mostly because she didn’t actually have a plan. Understandably, that kept her awake.
There was no idea she’d developed that she considered a possibility higher than the others. Everything had flaws. Everything depended too much on the others. Just because she would stick by them didn’t mean she couldn’t plan on them betraying her if given the opportunity.
Still, the best option might just be shooting Wind Rider in the back with a missile and then convincing the others on the fly to head east. They probably wouldn’t make it all the way to the promised extraction point, but it would get them closer before running out of fuel.
But who could she tell about her plan? Rainbow, through her friends, had come to understand that decisions were best made in groups. She was smart enough to know she wasn’t the smartest.
Maybe she should tell Lightning false information about an escape attempt. Heck, maybe all of them. That would show who she could trust. But no, there would be backlash if the UTA found out they were lying, even unintentionally. She couldn’t do that to them. Rainbow rolled her eyes. And if they UTA didn’t find out they were lying, there could be backlash on her.
Considering her options, of all the people around her, only Soarin’ stood above the rest. He’d at least been actively keeping her alive.
But what could she tell him? What would he think about an aerial escape attempt that he couldn’t be a part of?
The alarms around base suddenly went off. Around the room, pilots were sitting up. Rainbow was already awake. She got up and headed for the door.
Outside, it was still dark. Rainbow’s eyes searched the night for the possible reason for the alarm. Turning in place, she spotted a glow on the horizon. Watching, distant flames leaped up.
She wasn’t too concerned. Not yet, anyway. If the fire even burned that long, it would reach the concrete of the base and die out.
Of course, there was also the possibility that the alarm had been called based on potential enemies that might have started the fire. In that case, they were still pretty far away. Rainbow could just barely see the flames. She estimated it might have been a mile.
Strange how her standards had changed. If it was that far, she was going back to bed.