Read Online Omnibus.The.Sea.Witch.2012 by Stephen Coonts - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Stephen Coonts
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Modahl and Varitek. I knew that, and yet, my mind refused to accept the reality. Wasn’t that odd?
Or was it merely human?
“We’re going to have to ditch somewhere,” I told everyone on the intercom. “Everyone put on a life vest now. Break out the emergency supplies and the raft, geteverything ready so when we go in the water we can get it out of the plane ASAP.”
They knew what to do, they just needed someone to tell them to do it. I could handle that. After Amme got his vest on, I put on mine and hooked up the straps.
I had Pottinger bring the chart. I wanted a sheltered stretch of water to put the plane in beside an island we could survive on. And the farther from the Japs the better.
One of the Trobriand Islands. Which one would depend upon our fuel.
We were flying at about a thousand feet. Without the altimeter all I could do was look at the swells and guess. The higher we climbed, the more we could see, but if a Japanese fighter found us, our best defense was to fly just above the water to prevent him from completing firing passes.
I looked at the sun. Another two hours, I decided, then we would climb so we could see the Trobriand Islands from as far away as possible.
As we flew along I found myself thinking about Oklahoma when I was a kid, when my dad and sister and I were still living together. I couldn’t remember what my mother looked like; she died when I was very young. I remembered my sister’s face, though. Maybe she resembled Mama.
The island first appeared as a shadow on the horizon, just a darkening of that junction of sea and sky. I turned the plane ten degrees right to hit it dead on.
The minutes ticked away as I stared at it, wondering.Finally I checked my watch. Five hours. We had attacked the harbor five hours earlier.
Ten minutes later I could definitely see that it was an island, a low green thing, little rise on the spine, which meant it wasn’t coral.
Pottinger was in the left seat at that time, so I pointed it out to him. He merely stared, didn’t say anything. About that time Dutch Amme came down from the flight engineer’s station and announced that the temps were rising on the starboard engine.
“And we’re running out of gas. An hour more, at the most.”
I pointed out the island to him, and he had to grab the back of the seat to keep from falling.
In less than a minute we had everyone trooping up to the cockpit to take a look. Finally, I ran them all back to their stations.
That island looked like the promised land.
POTTINGER:
A miracle, that was what it was. We were delivered. We were going to make it, going to live. Going to have some tomorrows.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The island was there, yet it was so far away. We would reach it, land in the lee, swim ashore …
Please God, let us live. Let me and these others live to marry and have children and contribute something to the world.
Hear me. Let us do this.
HOFFMAN:
I was so happy I couldn’t stand still. I wanted to pound everyone on the back. Sure, I had been fighting despair, telling myself we weren’t going to die when I really figured we might. The hull was a sieve—when the ensign set the
Witch
in the water we were going to have to get out as it sank. I knew that, everyone did. And still,
now
we had a chance.
“Fighter!”
One of the guys in the blisters saw it first and called it.
“A float fighter.”
I rolled the trim over a bit, got us drifting downward toward the water. The elevator control cables had been damaged in the bomb blast. The trim wheel was the only reason we were still alive.
“He hasn’t seen us yet. Still high, crossing from starboard to port behind us, heading nearly east it looks like.”
After a bit, “Okay, he’s three miles or so out to the east, going away. Never saw us.”
The Japanese put some of their Zeros on floats, which made a lot of sense since the Zero had such great range. The float fighters could be operated out of bays and lagoons
Or was it merely human?
“We’re going to have to ditch somewhere,” I told everyone on the intercom. “Everyone put on a life vest now. Break out the emergency supplies and the raft, geteverything ready so when we go in the water we can get it out of the plane ASAP.”
They knew what to do, they just needed someone to tell them to do it. I could handle that. After Amme got his vest on, I put on mine and hooked up the straps.
I had Pottinger bring the chart. I wanted a sheltered stretch of water to put the plane in beside an island we could survive on. And the farther from the Japs the better.
One of the Trobriand Islands. Which one would depend upon our fuel.
We were flying at about a thousand feet. Without the altimeter all I could do was look at the swells and guess. The higher we climbed, the more we could see, but if a Japanese fighter found us, our best defense was to fly just above the water to prevent him from completing firing passes.
I looked at the sun. Another two hours, I decided, then we would climb so we could see the Trobriand Islands from as far away as possible.
As we flew along I found myself thinking about Oklahoma when I was a kid, when my dad and sister and I were still living together. I couldn’t remember what my mother looked like; she died when I was very young. I remembered my sister’s face, though. Maybe she resembled Mama.
The island first appeared as a shadow on the horizon, just a darkening of that junction of sea and sky. I turned the plane ten degrees right to hit it dead on.
The minutes ticked away as I stared at it, wondering.Finally I checked my watch. Five hours. We had attacked the harbor five hours earlier.
Ten minutes later I could definitely see that it was an island, a low green thing, little rise on the spine, which meant it wasn’t coral.
Pottinger was in the left seat at that time, so I pointed it out to him. He merely stared, didn’t say anything. About that time Dutch Amme came down from the flight engineer’s station and announced that the temps were rising on the starboard engine.
“And we’re running out of gas. An hour more, at the most.”
I pointed out the island to him, and he had to grab the back of the seat to keep from falling.
In less than a minute we had everyone trooping up to the cockpit to take a look. Finally, I ran them all back to their stations.
That island looked like the promised land.
POTTINGER:
A miracle, that was what it was. We were delivered. We were going to make it, going to live. Going to have some tomorrows.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The island was there, yet it was so far away. We would reach it, land in the lee, swim ashore …
Please God, let us live. Let me and these others live to marry and have children and contribute something to the world.
Hear me. Let us do this.
HOFFMAN:
I was so happy I couldn’t stand still. I wanted to pound everyone on the back. Sure, I had been fighting despair, telling myself we weren’t going to die when I really figured we might. The hull was a sieve—when the ensign set the
Witch
in the water we were going to have to get out as it sank. I knew that, everyone did. And still,
now
we had a chance.
“Fighter!”
One of the guys in the blisters saw it first and called it.
“A float fighter.”
I rolled the trim over a bit, got us drifting downward toward the water. The elevator control cables had been damaged in the bomb blast. The trim wheel was the only reason we were still alive.
“He hasn’t seen us yet. Still high, crossing from starboard to port behind us, heading nearly east it looks like.”
After a bit, “Okay, he’s three miles or so out to the east, going away. Never saw us.”
The Japanese put some of their Zeros on floats, which made a lot of sense since the Zero had such great range. The float fighters could be operated out of bays and lagoons
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