Page 62 of Ace

“You don’t want to go back.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

She wasn’t sure exactly why. “I think because this was so nice. You. Me. Being up here. It was comfortable. You’re a great copilot up here.”

“But not down there.”

She shook her head. “We aren’t one as much in real life.”

Their instruments started beeping the warning sounds again.

“What the.”

Gianna clicked on the dials. “What do you see?”

“I see bogies. Incoming. I don’t think they’re friendly.”

“What? Where are we?”

She checked their dials. “We aren’t above enemy airspace.”

“No, but we’re pretty close. Let’s back away.”

“Roger that.” She dove away and sped up back to friendly air.

But they followed.

“Gi….”

“I see them.”

She lifted their position so they weren’t in direct gun range. Though they would already be in range of their missiles. Dex called in to the tower. “You seeing this?”

“They’re Mantukese.”

“Anything else we should know?”

“The United States told them to dismantle their weapons facilities.”

“So are we code red?”

“Orange. But if they fire, you’ll witness the change to code red.”

“Wow, that’s something Gi and I do not have on our bucket list.”

“No, we don’t, that’s a ten-four.”

The planes were almost close enough for her to see the pilots inside. She wondered about their families.

“Don’t do it.”

“Do what?”

“Start humanizing the enemy.”

“Of all the…”

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