Blake's Pilot
1
Cap Carrington smiled, happy that his transportation service was picking up business. He almost had enough to hire another pilot for a plane he was considering to buy. The jobs he did for Adam Blake, Church Hill's other man of mystery, had put him back on his feet and helped his two man company grow.
"Tank" Messer, his partner and mechanic, came to the office door with his habitual frown a little deeper than usual.
"Something wrong, Tank?," Cap asked, good-naturedly. There was bound to be a lot wrong according to the dour mechanic.
"Putter Walsh is coming across the tarmac," Tank said.
Cap jumped to his feet, smile gone.
"You're kidding me," said the pilot.
"Doubt it," said Tanker. "Looks like trouble on the hoof."
Cap glanced at the man, frowning. He went to the hangar door to meet their old friend. He had cut himself off from Walsh due to the HUAC committee smearing him. Putter still worked for All American. That raised another question.
What brought him to Carrington Aviation?
Putter Walsh walked into the hanger, nodding at the two planes he saw there. The Jenny caught his eye, and he admired her until his mind fell back on the business that had brought him to Church Hill and his old friends, Cap and Tank.
The two men smiled at him as he pulled himself from his reverie.
"What can we do for you, Putter?," asked Cap, sipping a bottle of Coca Cola. "Gerry will skin you for leaving her behind, if I know her."
"That's why I came to talk to you," said Walsh. "I didn't want you to find out from anybody else."
"Find out what?," Tank asked first. His hands were engrossed with a rag. If that rag had been a man, it would have been dead.
"Gerry has disappeared," Walsh said.
"What do you mean disappeared?," Cap asked, hand tight around the neck of the bottle he held.
"She was on board a new prototype," said Putter, looking at the floor. "The plane and everybody on board vanished."
"You have to be kidding," said Cap, putting the soda bottle down before he dropped it.
"No," said Putter. "That's why I came to tell you myself. The Feds think she took off with it."
"Why would she do that?," asked Tank.
"To sell it to the Soviets," said Putter. "They're trying to do a job on All American."
"We'll see about that," Cap said.
"We will?," said Tank.
"You'll help us?," said Putter. "Thanks Cap, Tank."
"Get the Jenny ready, you guys, while I get some help," said Cap. He went to the phone as his friends started doing preflight checks on the Jenny.
2
Cap's first phone call yielded nothing, much to his amazement. He had counted on Adam Blake to help him, but the man of mystery was absent from the block of converted buildings he called home.
Cap's next call went a lot better. Carter Nicola said he was on the way to the airport after he made some phone calls to some people he knew. They might be able to get the group faster access to public records with their connections.
Cap called Paul Twitchell after checking the wall clock. He knew the former stool pigeon visited a few bars early in the morning to see who was doing what to whom. A series of calls caught up with him in the middle of his routine.
Twitch said he would call Cully Morrigan and ask the hit man to help out.
He didn't hold any hope that the grinning man would lend a hand without the promise of payment.
Cap understood that well enough.
Morrigan was not a charitable man.
Cap gave the news to his friends as he got a flight plan ready so they could lift off from Church Hill to their destination.
The group assembled at the Carrington Aviation hangar quickly. The Jenny taxied down the runway as soon as everyone was aboard and buckled in. Cap's light touch propelled the cargo plane gently west towards California. The twin jet engines roared eagerly at top volume.
The men divided up the work to do upon landing.
Cap and Tank would join the air search with the Jenny. If the plane crashed, they would find the remains.
Nicola would get whatever official reports he could and go over them with a fine toothed comb.
Cully and Twitch would look around on the ground and see if anyone had seen anything.
Cap found himself fighting for control as he urged the Jenny onward.
3
El Gordo Mesa sat in the middle of the high desert north of Las Vegas. It was surrounded by desert with irrigation allowing the locals to survive with what they could as a stop over for air traffic into southern California, and points south and west.
The Jenny drifted in for a landing under Cap Carrington's careful hands. He rolled the plane to a stop in front of the hangar to refuel and drop off his passengers.
"Let's get started," said Cully Morrigan, pasty face frozen in a smile because of his former employer's retirement plan.
"Meet back here at six?," asked Carter Nicola.
"Right," said Twitch Twitchell, shaking nervously as he looked at empty desert town. He had a feeling things wouldn't be easy.
The men separated to carry out their tasks.
Carrington and Tank went to get a load of gas from the airport manager. Cap wanted to get back in the air as soon as possible. He had doubts that the government were doing an exceptional job searching if they already thought Gerry had taken her own plane.
It would be up to him and Tank to find that plane and his love.
If she was still alive to be found.
Cap pushed those thoughts aside as he finally got someone to talk to about that gas.
Cully Morrigan and Paul Twitchell went one way, while Carter Nicola went another. Nicola was headed for the terminal to go over the evidence gathered at the terminal. He hoped that Wyndham had been able to clear the way for him.
The federal government was beginning to regulate the flight industry, and private citizens like himself would not be able to see reports without filling out request forms in duplicate.
He headed for the radar tower. If they kept log sheets for the plane traffic, that would be the first steps to finding Cap's love. It would indicate an area, or direction, for the search to head into.
Nicola found two men smoking, listening to the radio.
"My name is Carter Nicola," the academic said. "I am here to help in the search for the missing plane."
"Join the club," said one of the men.
Cully Morrigan and Paul Twitchell arrived in town with no fanfare.
"Doesn't look like much, does it?," asked Twitch, vibrating slightly.
"The only thing keeping this town alive is the airport," said Cully, looking around as he headed for the only diner in sight. "If that folds up, this town will go under in a flat second."
The two stepped through the door of the diner. The place seemed busy, but Cully knew half of these people were with the search effort and when that was gone, they would be too.
Blake's associates found an empty booth in the back of the place and sat down. They placed an order with a harried waitress and listened to the conversation around them.
They were not encouraged by what loose talk they picked up.
Everyone they could hear had already decided that Hop's girl had taken the new jet and flown south with it to Mexico to be sold overseas somewhere. None of them were really serious about the search at all.
Cap Carrington and Tank Messer took to the air as soon as the Jenny had been fueled. They flew a spiral out from the solitary desert airport. Other aircraft sailed the skies, but Cap only paid them attention when the other planes, or helicopters, came too close to his own plane. They spent hours on the search. Night fell on the desert. The moon rose as Cap brought his plane in for a landing. His frown hid his normal good humor as he taxied down the runway.
He hoped the others had better luck than he had.
4
Blake's associates met at the airport. They crowded in a hangar where the Jenny was parked. Tank spread a map on the top of a fuel barrel. He circled an area around the small town with a pen.
"This is where we searched," he said. "The only thing in the area was scrub, coyotes, and that abandoned airport from the Army."
"Abandoned airport?," asked Morrigan, smoking a cigarette.
"It was the first place searched," said Nicola. "Nothing was found there according to the operators in the tower. I was able to secure statements by the operators, and their log sheets. The only thing I found was the same as everyone else has. The plane fell below radar and vanished."
"Everyone in town has your girl pegged for a Commie," said Twitch. "They're not even looking for her around here. Thinking is she flew across to Mexico to sell the plane."
"They're wrong," said Cap, slamming a hand in his fist. "And we have to prove it somehow."
"I have an idea," said Morrigan, stubbing out his cigarette on the floor.
Cap Carrington and Tank Messer were at the controls of the Jenny again. Carter Nicola sat at the engineering station, reports at hand. Cully Morrigan and Twitch Twitchell watched the landscape go by from windows forward of the cargo area.
Morrigan's idea was old, but somehow seeming to fit the mystery they were floundering in.
Blake's associates were recreating the crime.
Cap circled the plane in a wide loop over the desert, heading back to the airport on the same heading as Gerry's plane. He listened to Nicola read the report from the earlier flight, as Tank talked to the tower. The Jenny slid toward El Gordo Mesa, but things seemed wrong for some reason. The town flew towards them as they dropped lower towards the desert floor.
Cap almost laughed as the Jenny flew by the airport. Another airport approached as the jet flew on.
"That's the abandoned airport," said Tank. "That's already been cleared."
"I know," said Cap.
5
The Jenny headed in a straight line for the mesa that had given the town its name. The massive outcropping of rock could easily accommodate a plane landing on its top. Cap settled into a straight run, letting his jet float gently to a touchdown. The Jenny rolled to a stop, engines dying, as bullets beat against the metal body of the jet.
"Get the door, Twitch," ordered Cully Morrigan, reaching under his coat with both hands. He pulled twin Colts as the former stool pigeon pushed the door open with his foot. The trouble shooter waited for a lull before dropping through the hatchway. His automatics roared continuously as he headed for cover.
Twitch dropped to the ground right behind him. He had an old .38, but he held his fire as followed in Cully's foot steps. He wasn't a killer like the former hit man, and knew it.
Cap Carrington grabbed his own .45 as he ran down the aisle toward the opened hatch. He heard Tank's heavier steps following close behind.
"Get the Jenny out of here, Tank," he ordered his friend. "Someone has to go for help."
"Man, I never get any fun," Tank grumbled, brandishing an automatic of his own.
"Take Carter with you," said Hop, as he dropped and rolled. "They will believe him."
Tank emptied his automatic as he reached for the Jenny's hatch. One simple tug slammed the door shut. He dogged the hatch, and went forward.
"All right Professor," he said as he settled into the pilot's chair. "We're leaving."
"What about the others?," Carter Nicola said, strapping back in.
"They are on their own," said Tanker, as he flipped switches and pushed the throttle forward. Luckily, Cap had left the engines idling.
Moments later, the Jenny roared toward the edge of the mesa and took flight.
Cully Morrigan paused behind a rock. A man stepped into view with a Tommy Gun. Morrigan fired first, striking the man across the side of his head with the bullet.
Cap Carrington fell beside him, holding his still unfired pistol at the ready. He shook his head to shake the dust of the Jenny's passage and take off from his eyes. Twitch Twitchell had taken refuge behind a boulder to their right.
"When I give the word," Cully called out. "Rush them."
"Go!," he shouted with false enthusiasm.
The remaining three gun men fired on the cowering Twitch. He hunkered down, letting the bullets bounce here and there around him. Morrigan stood up, firing his pistols empty as he ran forward. The men dropped, fooled by the fake setup.
Cully slid to a stop, beside the cave's entrance, reloading with simple practiced movements.
"I got your girl, Carrington," called a voice from inside the rocky hangar. "Back off, or she gets it."
Cap slid to the other side of the cavern's entrance. He looked over at the grinning hit man. Morrigan nodded slightly, indicating a willingness to try to negotiate with something other than bullets.
"Who am I talking to?," Cap asked. He had a vanishing small list of suspects from which to choose. The man at the top was the only one on the flight who could have insured the plane would arrive at the top of the Mesa, and not in town.
That man was the pilot, Captain Humphrey Dufries. The only man who could have directed the plane without the passengers noticing.
"You know who this is, Carrington," said the voice. "This is Dufries. I walk with the HX-110, or your girl gets it. No bargaining, no stalling, nothing. Am I understood?"
"Show your face, Dufries," said Cap, trying to pierce the darkness of the cavern with his own eyes.
Lights bloomed to life. Twin engines whined, then roared as Dufries prepared to taxi out of the cavern and take to the air. Cap could not see Gerry, and was afraid she was already dead.
"We have to stop that plane," shouted Morrigan. "If it gets off the ground, there goes the ball game."
"I am open to suggestions," said Cap, rushing forward. He could not decide where to shoot the plane.
Morrigan went for the tires, emptying his guns. The plane kept rolling, the slugs barely penetrating the black rubber. He reloaded his last two clips as he decided to switch targets. He took aim at the engines at the back of the plane and fired. He was rewarded by a tongue of flame erupting in the air.
Cap ran for the wing. He ducked under the swept back piece of metal. A single tug dumped a small boarding ladder from the side of the plane. He jumped up, pulling the hatch out and to the side. The pilot took aim down the length of the plane at the thieving pilot.
"I'll kill her before you can pull the trigger," said Dufries, aiming his own pistol at the woman sitting in the copilot's chair. "Don't think I won't."
"You don't have a chance, Dufries," Cap said, grim for once. "Give it up. Otherwise, Gerry won't be the only one dying tonight."
"You're not a killer, Carrington," said Dufries, with a twisted smile.
Both men were surprised by a bullet smashing the plastic window, hitting Dufries's pistol, ricocheting from the metal, and slicing through the cords around Gerry's arms, before burying itself in the inner wall of the cockpit.
Dufries tried to jump to his feet, but Cap bounded across the intervening space, and swung a hard right first. The pilot crashed against the windshield, then slumped to the floor.
Cap took his love in his arms, whispering things. The world seemed to recede for a timeless moment.
"You and your trick shooting," Morrigan said to Twitch.
"When you got it, you got it," said Twitch, trying to twirl the .38, and dropping it to the ground.
Epilogue
Six months later, Cully Morrigan wore a tuxedo, tugging at the collar. At his side was the shaky Paul Twitchell. They kept their eyes on the guests arriving at the church.
They stood on either side of the door, when the ceremony started.
Putter Walsh escorted Gerry down the aisle, giving her away. Cap Carrington and Tank Messer, the best man, waited with the reverend as the march played its last triumphant strains.
"Kind of chokes you up," whispered the stool pigeon.
"Shut up," said Morrigan. "I don't want to be distracted."
Adam Blake stood at the door of the building in his own black suit and gold collar pin. His neutral expression didn't quite smile, but his metallic green eyes seemed to laugh as he turned away.