第11节

Fazzetti's

helmet.

Did Lou ?"

'Yeah. He went into the meat business." And not just metaphorically,

thought Steve. Every time Steve had seen that helmet it conjured up

the image of Fazzetti's impaled head. In all the time he'd been a

prisoner, he'd never found out what the M'Calls had done with the body

and he'd tried not to dwell on the possibility that bits of Fazzetti

might have ended up in one of the thick hot-flavoured stews his captors

had fed him with.

Looking back over his shoulder, he surveyed the aircraft formation on

their starboard wing and noted the dramatic change in its appearance.

'What are you guys flying - Red River Specials?"

Lundkwist smiled. 'The Mark Two Skyhawk. Part of a batch delivered

for field trials."

'What happened to the rifle mount above the cockpit?"

'We've got a fixed, forward-firing set-up called Thor instead. Six

revolving barrels, motor driven and drum fed, delivering twelve hundred

rounds a minute."

'Smokin' lumpshit! Is this one armed too?"

'No, this is just a delivery truck."

Steve jerked his head towards the cockpit canopy.

'This must be great for keeping out the rain. How well does it stand

up to Mute crossbow bolts?"

'Depends on the range. It won't stop a bolt hitting it more or less

dead on - say eighty or ninety degrees - but if the strike is at an

angle of seventy degrees or under it tends to bounce off. But that's

not all, we've got lightweight armoured panels made from some new

composite under the floor, around the sides and behind the seat."

Steve gazed around the cockpit and shook his head.

'Pilot armour, six-barrelled guns, canopies -' He glanced back up over

his shoulder at the ribbed starboard wing. '- a totally new method of

construction.

It's too much to handle."

'You're forgetting you've been out of circulation for five months."

'So what? Come on, Don, you know as well as I do they haven't even

changed the nut sizes on the Skyhawk in the last fifty years! And now

suddenly, all this -' Steve swept his eyes over the cockpit. 'Doesn't

it strike you as amazing?"

'Yeah, fantastic,' said Lundkwist. 'But I don't see what you're

getting at. You know what Federation policy is - "If it works, you

don't change it". Going up against the Plainfolk Mutes showed us the

old Skyhawk was too vulnerable. You guys aboard The Lady found that

out the hard way."

'Yeah..." Steve thought back to the bloody battle in the flooded river

bed.

'And we lost a few guys during the summer too. That's what's so

wonderful about the First Family. Right from the very beginning

they've always provided us with the right tools, the right equipment

and technology to enable us to do the job they ask of us."

'They've certainly been busy,' admitted Steve. 'How many of the

wagon-trains have got the new model your friends are flying?"

'Right now, nobody else but us. They're still gearing up the new

production line at Reagan/Lubbock."

Steve eyed her with a. touch of resentment. 'So, meanwhile, the rest

of the guys are flying garbage..."

Lundkwist smiled. 'You know how it is with Big Red One. It's the

outfit that gets the best of everything."

'Don't remind me."

Lundkwist checked the sky around them then glanced back at Steve. 'How

did you get into this mess?"

'Good question. I got shot down over Wyoming and was made a prisoner

by the Mutes. It's a long story but finally, after five months, I

managed to escape."

Lundkwist frowned. 'But ' 'Yeah, I know what you're going to say.

"Mutes don't take prisoners." That's what everyone keeps telling

me."

'And you mean you were out there, with them for five whole months so

How come you're still in one piece?"

'That's another good question. You tell me. Trouble is I have a

feeling that if you came up with the right answer you might find

yourself at the top of the Most Wanted List."

Lundkwist looked across at him. 'I'm not quite sure what you mean."