Page 26 of What is Lost

Hoping I got the right signal and all those hours watching the planes at Benning pay off.He didn’t turn. Instead, he held up a hand, flashing five fingers twice.Five plus five...come on, come on. Come on, you have to get it.

They were so close he saw the copilot’s head cock to one side, the way a dog struggles to understand a command—and then, as John signaled again, the copilot jerked his head in a quick nod and flashed a thumb’s up.

“What you tell him?” The woman was at his elbow. “What your hand mean?”

He didn’t reply. Had Roni seen the exchangebetween him and the copilot?Would she understand? On the other side of the plane’s nose, there was Meeks, keeping pace with them, and then Roni. They locked eyes for a moment. He willed the knowledge into her brain, felt a quick instant’s relief when she nodded and said something to Driver. Two seconds later, their vehicle leapt ahead and roared past the Moose.

Excellent. She gets it.“Musa,” he said, “do what Meeks is doing. As soon as the pilot sees us veer off, the plane will make an emergency stop. Ten seconds later, he’s going to power up and then he’ll wait another ten before releasing his brakes. So, I want you to pull ahead, give us some distance and then turn around so we’re facing the plane.”

The woman: “He do nothing?—”

“He has to. You’re wasting time.”

“I no understand!”

“And you don’t have to. Musa, please, just do it!”

The woman showed her teeth in a snarl. “And what you going do once plane stop?”

“Wait for the pilot to power up.” He snugged his rifle against his shoulder. “Then pick off anyone who’s left.”

Most planes workpretty much the same way. In order to take off, enough power needs to be generatedto push the aircraft forward until it reaches a speed where the wings generate lift. The pilot then raises the plane’s nose to the right angle so the plane climbs.

There are two ways to do this.

One is kinetic. Given a sufficiently long runway, the plane builds lift by increasing speed over a long distance.

Another is static. The pilot applies the brakes while revving the engines to full power before releasing the brake. A certain length of runway is still required but not as much because the plane’s engines are already at full. Think of aircraft slingshot and blasting up and away from a carrier.

The beauty of the Moose is that, in a way, it can do both.

When the Moose put on the brakes, all the civilians around and on parts of the plane simply froze. No one spoke. No one moved. The seconds passed...though they seemed to crawl for John.

Come on. Come on.His tongue skimmed sweat from his upper lip, and he tasted salt.Come on, already.

And then the Moose revved its engines.

The sound was monstrous: a guttural, deafening roar that vibrated up his legs and into his teeth. On the opposite side of the tarmac, he saw Roni and Driver took up their stances.

The roar also had the desired effect. Thosearound the plane jumped back and, as the engines continued their screaming crescendo to full power, as the air became more turbulent and tugged at their clothes…most who were left began to scatter.

Most.

He counted seven left on his side. With only ten seconds to work with, he would have to be fast. Even as he drew a bead on a bearded man in a striped tunic, he heard the sporadicpop-pop-popthat had to be Roni and Driver on the other side: carefully picking their targets and shooting just close enough not to actually hit them or the plane. It was all in the angle, which was why he’d had Musa pull their Jeep in close enough not to be sucked into an engine but shallow enough so any bullet would miss the plane and pass into open space beyond.

The man’s striped tunic twitched with his first shot—one second in the countdown already gone—but that was enough. Even as the man jumped away, John was swiveling to peg the shemagh wrapped around another man’s head.Two seconds gone. He fired. The shemagh went flying was as its owner stumbled back when—three—John swung to a third man perched on a wheel. The man saw him, waved his arms, and tried standing at the same moment John squeezed the trigger. This time, there was a jump of blood and then the man wastumbling off the wheel, clutching at his leg as others nearby dragged him away from the plane.

Damn.He hoped that was a through-and-through. Either way, he’d likely be tending to that guy in twenty minutes or so.And with no fresh supplies.

At that, the crowd broke apart. Men scattered, slipped out of wheel wells, dropped from sponsons, andran—just as the transport’s engines slid from an idle to a throb and began to surge.

John let go of two more shots, but they were moot. There was no one left around the plane and, with eight seconds gone,theyhad to move.

“Musa!” Shouldering his rifle, he braced himself. On the opposite side of the plane, Roni’s vehicle was already spinning back and away from the plane. “Back up. Do what they’re doing. Go, go, go!”

There was a terrific lurch as their Humvee spun backward, wheels spinning and skidding, and then the remaining seconds slipped away?—

And the Moose’s pilot released the brake.

---