Part 50 (1/2)

There were men behind the truck, Hungarian civilians with pistols; and the two Keystone Kops on the motorcycle who trailed the truck were on the ground, spread-eagled. As Fulmar watched, the driver and his a.s.sistant were brought to the rear of the truck and forced onto the ground beside the cops.

One of the men with pistols motioned the prisoners into a line, and then into two lines, then three, prodding the slow ones with the barrel of his pistol. And then another man came down the line and rudely jerked people out of line by grabbing their shoulders.

If I wasn't so afraid, this would be funny.

The man reached him, jerked Fulmar out of line, and marched him toward the front of the truck. Fulmar saw what had stopped the truck. A tree lay across the road. At first he thought it had been sawed, but then he saw that it had been taken down by somebody who knew how to use Primacord.

Standing near the cab of the truck were more Hungarians. One of them, in a large soft black woolen hat, looked somehow familiar.

”You do not recognize me,” Canidy ordered quietly when Fulmar was dragged before him.

Fulmar shook his head in wonderment and smiled, but said nothing.

”We don't have much time,” Canidy said. ”Just tell me which of the others would escape if they had half a chance?”

Fulmar looked confused.

”You heard me,” Canidy said. ”I need to know who are the serious criminals.”

Fulmar was as much confused by the question as he was surprised to see Canidy. But he finally understood that the question was important for reasons he could not imagine.

”These guys are petty criminals,” Fulmar said. ”If they weren't in jail, they'd probably starve. No real criminals, if that's what you're asking.”

”d.a.m.n,” Canidy said. ”Now, is Professor Dyer one of the people we pulled out of there?”

Fulmar looked.

”Second from the end,” he said, ”with the gla.s.ses.”

Canidy waved another of the Hungarians over and spoke softly to him in English.

”No gangsters,” he said. ”We'll just have to take half a dozen of them with us, that's all there is to it. You saw Dyer?”

”Yeah, but I don't think he recognized me.”

”Let's try to keep it that way for the time being,” Canidy said. ”You go ahead and get them to uncover the plane.”

”The plane?” Fulmar blurted. ”You've got an airplane? airplane?”

”Take Loudmouth here with you,” Canidy said. ”He insists on talking English.”

There was a sharp cracking noise, followed a moment later by a creaking, tearing noise, and finally a great cras.h.i.+ng sound.

Fulmar realized that another tree, its trunk severed by Primacord, had been dropped across the road.

”Let's go, Lieutenant,” the man Canidy had spoken to said softly, and Fulmar followed him off the road and into the forest.

It was a long way across steep, heavily forested hills from where the prison truck had been stopped to the meadow; and when they got there, Fulmar was sweat-soaked and panting from the exertion.

He didn't see an airplane. All he saw was a Hungarian standing at the far end of the meadow beside two of the largest horses he had ever seen. The horses wore whatever horses used so they could pull a wagon or a plow, but there was nothing around for them to pull.

And then, as they crossed the meadow, he saw a round red light sticking out of a snow-covered mound. And he understood that he was looking at the top of an aircraft vertical stabilizer.

An American pilot wearing a leather A-2 jacket and with a Thompson submachine gun in his hands came out of the woods.

”This is Fulmar,” Ferniany told Darmstadter. ”Canidy's bringing the other one.”

Darmstadter looked with unabashed curiosity at Fulmar.

This young guy in blue work clothes was the purpose of this whole operation?

”h.e.l.lo,” Fulmar said.

That shocked Darmstadter into action.

He looked around for someplace to put the Thompson down and finally hung it from a bra.s.s horn on the harness of one of the horses. Ferniany watched him, then shrugged and put his pistol in his pocket and went to the mound of snow-covered brush.

When the branches were off the tail section, Alois. .h.i.tched a stout rope to the tail wheel and the huge horses pulled the C-47 far enough out of the forest to turn the airplane around.

It took half an hour to remove all the branches from the C-47. Some of them had frozen to the wings and fuselage, and small branches had wedged into the openings of the movable control surfaces.

Darmstadter started the engines, to make sure they would start. The engines started without difficulty, but when he tried to run the controls through their operating range, he found that snow had melted and then frozen the controls cables.

He let the engines run until they had reached operating temperature, then shut them down. Then he went after the ice in the ailerons and other movable control surfaces while Fulmar and Ferniany hammered at the ice on the wings. They quickly learned the best way to get it off was to stamp on it with their feet or slam it with their fists. The aluminum would then flex enough to free the ice, which could then be pushed or kicked out of the way.

They were still working on the airplane when the team, the Hungarian underground, Canidy, Dyer, and six wholly confused and terrified petty criminals from St. Gertrud's prison arrived.

”Wind it up,” Canidy ordered. ”We're going. Get those people aboard.”

”We're taking them?” Fulmar asked incredulously.

”Instant immigration,” Canidy said. ”Get them aboard.”

Canidy stood by the door of the airplane as the Hungarians and the team and Professor Dyer got aboard. He collected the weapons and pa.s.sed them to the Hungarians. Darmstadter started one engine and then the other.

”Get on, Eric,” Canidy ordered.

Ferniany and Canidy looked at each other a moment, wordlessly.

”You aren't really such a horse's a.s.s after all,” Canidy finally said. ”Take care.”

”You are,” Ferniany said with a smile. ”A horse's a.s.s, I mean.”

Then he slapped Canidy on the back and ran to get out of the prop blast.

Canidy climbed into the Gooney Bird. As he closed the door, Darmstadter started to taxi to the absolute end of the meadow.