Thursday, December 15, 2016

Devil's Brew, Book #8 of the Janitors Series - Secret landing strip in Iraq under fire.



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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