Page 2 of Flyboy

“That’s awesome, dude,” Ridley said.

“What about you, Mustang?” Ace twirled a pencil, leaning back in his chair. Zoom was fine, but Colton wanted to sit in a real room with each of the board sometime.

“I’m ready for another mission, that’s what.”

“And I have the four we’ve chosen ready for you,” Ace said. “But before we go through our pilots and choose teams, there’s something else we need to address.”

That sounded ominous. He tried to get a read on Ace, but he just couldn’t tell all that much through a Zoom chat image.

“We had a letter of complaint.”

“A what?” Colton couldn’t remember there ever being a letter of complaint.

“Yes. There’s really nothing for it. I’m not sure what to think, so I’ll just read it.”

Was he taking this letter seriously? Or was he laughing inside? Looking at the now intense expressions of the others, Colton shifted in his seat at the dining room table and leaned closer as if peering into the screen would help him figure things out.

Ace unfolded a piece of paper. “This is from Ivy Hatfield.”

Colton’s heart hammered inside. And a knot in his stomach grew.

“I’ll skip to the good stuff.” Ace cleared his throat. “Colton Bushman has proven overly aggressive in his efforts to teach the more challenging flying to pilots who lack experience. When he teaches, he is goaded on by their encouragement and creates an atmosphere of recklessness that is a danger not only to himself but to all our pilots. While I see that Top Fight wants to improve upon the training pilots may have received previously, I don’t feel it is in anyone’s best interest to create a team of pilots all over the world who take undue risks and potentially lose lives and expensive planes.” Ace cleared his throat. “She goes on, for three pages. But that was the gist of what she continued to say in many different ways.”

“Sounds like she’s got a real bone to pick with you. Did you do a flyby and scare her one time or something?” Ridley shook his head.

“No, nothing like that at all. I can’t figure out why she, of all people, would have written this. We’ve never worked together.” Colton couldn’t make up his mind about whether to be irritated, hurt, or amused.

“She’s around. She sees you or hears of you.” Amanda interjected, and her tone gave Colton pause.

“What are your thoughts, Mustang?”

“I think you need to let her see why you do what you do. Maybe you could explain your methods and theories to her.” Her tone sounded a little too placating to Colton.

“Why should I have to talk at all about it? My actions speak for themselves. My history, the pilots I’ve trained. It can all stand on its own.”

“I know you’re an exceptional pilot. We know that. But it’s so much easier for people to know you or understand you if you spell it out a little bit. None of us can read minds.”

“Ace? Ridley?”

Ridley cleared his throat. “Might want to talk to her.”

“None of you agree with her?”

Every one of them shook their heads.

“Honestly, Flyboy, we love it when you do your amazing maneuvers. No one can fly like you. Hands down. No one. And we know that. We trust you.” Ace would always come through. And it sounded like the others didn’t think he was a danger to pilots everywhere.

Colton shrugged. “Looks like Ivy Hatfield needs a little Flyboy education. So now I’m going to request for her to be on my team.” Of course, he knew he was already planning to do just that, but they didn’t need to know that, or that her words cut deeper coming from her than they would anybody else. He couldn’t just shake them off. They were sticking to him in uncomfortable places.

Silence met him, and then Ridley shook his head. “That’ll be something. Could I come just to watch the show?”

“I’ve got the popcorn.” Amanda grinned.

Ace wiped laughter tears from his eyes. “Now, you know the four of us know what an asset you are to our team, but it seems we have yet to convince Ivy. Perhaps it would be best if you just give her a lot of room for a few months. What do you think?”

Colton shook his head. “No. I’ve convinced myself. I want her on my team. In Brazil.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea . . . did you hear what she said?”

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