Today’s
excerpt is from Devil’s Brew, Book #8 of the nine-book Janitors Series. The hastily built landing strip in Iraq comes
under attack and Wendy takes off in her C-130 to get it out of harm’s way. Bruce has other ideas. Enjoy and have a great day.
m.j.
Seeing that and
sure what Wendy had in mind, Bruce jumped into one of the 50-caliber buggies,
backed it part way into the plane, and hollered for Phil to help him secure
it. Phil noticed that the ramp wouldn’t
close where Bruce had stopped the buggy.
“We can’t close up if you’re halfway on the ramp.”
“Didn’t plan on
closing up. Tie her down.”
Harry, seeing
and hearing all that, quickly figured out what Bruce had in mind, grabbed a
large satchel of hand grenades, and headed for the rear of the plane. By the time he got there, the engines of the
plane were turning over and Bruce was already to the cockpit.
He handed Wendy
one of the communication sets used by the Janitors. “When you take off, fly over the bad guys and
tell me when to cut loose. I’ve got one
of the buggies sitting on the ramp and I’ll hose the bastards down.”
Wendy shook her
head and sighed. “I was just plannin’ on
getting’ my plane out of harm’s way, not turning it into a gun ship.”
“Your plan was a
good one. Mine’s better.”
Before Wendy
could reply, Bruce ran back to the rear of the plane, as it started moving
slowly. Once to his buggy, he jumped in
and got into the gun seat. Then he
looked at Phil. “Give me something to
tie myself down.”
Phil, already
having secured himself with a safety line and done the same for Harry, did as
asked. But as he did, he growled, “Hey,
Bruce, you better shoot straight. You
start shootin’ up my plane and I’ll toss you and this damned buggy right on out
the back.”
By that time
Wendy had her engines revved up enough to start her take off. Just as the plane was about to leave the
strip, an explosion near the front of the plane blew a hole in the side.
Wendy grunted,
but continued with her take off. Once
airborne she looked to her right. “Holly,
take over. I’m hit.”
Holly
immediately took control of the plane as Wendy stripped off her flight
suit. Down to only bra and panties, she
took the first aid kit offered by Holly and quickly wrapped her leg, after
placing a compress under the bandage.
Meanwhile, Brent did a fast job of scanning his instruments and found no
signs of a serious problem. Then he ran
forward to check out the hole in the side of the plane. It was very small and he saw no dangling
wires or other signs of damage. He then
headed back to his work area, but not before taking time to glance at Wendy
standing there in her scant outfit and admiring her physique. That admiring glance out of the way, he
quickly got to his instruments to check for any damage to the flight characteristics
of the plane.
When Brent got
out of her way, Wendy reached behind her seat and started putting on a spare
flight suit she had stored there. Once
that was on, she used her original flight suit to clean up the blood on her
seat, then got in it. “Okay, Holly, I
got her.”
Holly glanced
over and replied, “You sure you’re okay to fly?”
“What-in-the-hell
else am I gonna do? I sure can’t dance
right now.”
Holly just
laughed.
Meanwhile, on
the ground, Drew, Boris, Suzan, and Dan joined the Seabees and Marines in the
fight against the attackers, along with the new team members who had come with
them. The attack seemed to be
concentrated in some rolling sand dunes, not too far from the base.
Dan jumped into
the gun seat of one of the dune buggies the Janitors had brought and told one
of the new recruits to drive out in a circular route, in the general direction
of the enemy concentration of fire. Both
the Marines and Seabees had a Humvee with a fifty-caliber mounted aboard. Both vehicles headed straight for the
attackers, guns blazing.
Seeing that,
Suzan climbed into the gun seat of another buggy and yelled to Boris, “Drive,
honey. Follow Dan.”
The attackers
had only rifles and a few mortars, so the effect of the fifty-caliber machine
guns was a bit more than they had bargained for. They were soon to get still more, as Wendy
turned her plane and lined up on the attackers.
She correctly reasoned that too high an altitude would render Bruce
ineffective, down a bit would give the enemy a chance at possible return fire
at the plane, so she lined up to come in at a very low altitude…a scant few
feet above the attackers. Using her
headset she asked, “You ready back there, Bruce?”
“Sure am. Give me the word and I’ll start firing away
blindly, until I see something to fire at.”
Wendy replied,
“I’d say right now.”
Bruce didn’t
reply, he just started firing as he swung the gun back and forth, from side to
side. As he did that, Harry started
pulling pins and dropping hand grenades out the open ramp. The advent of the plane flying just a few
feet above them had a devastating affect on the attackers. They had no time to fire effectively at the
monster plane, and were systematically being cut to pieces by the fire from Bruce.
After a
successful run, Wendy arched the plane up and swung around for another
run. Nearing the beginning of the
attackers, she said, “Here we go again, Bruce.
Give ‘em hell.”
This time, one
brave attacker stood up on the top of the highest sand dune to fire at the
plane. He totally misjudged the speed of
the plane and one of the propellers cut him to pieces. By the time the second run of the plane was
completed, the Seabees and Marines were on what was left of the attackers. Soon none were left alive.
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